Claim:
Gov. Tim Walz changed the state flag of Minnesota to closely resemble the national flag of Somalia.
Rating:
False ( About this rating? )
Context:
Minnesota is home to the largest number of Somali Americans in the country, but any similarities between the new flag and the Somali flag are pure coincidence.
On Aug. 6, 2024, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate in the 2024 presidential election. As conservative pundits on X raced to critique Walz's political record, one such criticism focused around a rather surprising topic: Minnesota's state flag.
According to some posts , Walz changed the design of the Minnesota state flag in 2024 to one closely resembling the national flag of Somalia, implying that he had turned Minnesota into some kind of " New Somalia " and would do the same to the nation if elected.
These claims are demonstrably false — Walz did not change the state flag of Minnesota to resemble that of Somalia. Here's what actually happened:
Minnesota's old flag centered the state's seal, which featured a white settler tilling land and an Indigenous man on horseback, on a blue background. Indigenous Minnesotans, including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan , said the seal and the state flag were insulting to their heritage and attempted to erase the historical record of settler-inflicted violence against Native American groups. Meanwhile, others noted that the old flag broke several principles of "good flag design" as published by the North American Vexillological Association .
So, in 2023 , the Minnesota Legislature created a commission to redesign the state flag and seal. According to Minnesota Public Radio , it took 10 attempts in the Legislature to pass a bill calling for a new flag and a new seal. Walz signed that bill into law, but that was the only part he played in creating the new flag.
The commission received more than 2,500 redesign proposals, both serious and unserious, before choosing its top six designs, then whittling the number down to three, before finally selecting a base design created by Andrew Prekker.
Prekker's design featured a three horizontal stripes of white, green and light blue, with a navy blue stylized outline of Minnesota's shape on the left side of the flag and an eight-pointed star — a nod to the state's motto, "L'étoile du Nord," French for "The Star of the North" — centered in the outline.
The commission modified Prekker's design slightly by simplifying the star and removing the horizontal stripes in favor of a field entirely of light blue, representing the water of the so-called "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The commission released a comprehensive report on the design that is publicly available, and the new flag was officially flown for the first time on May 11, 2024.
So where does Somalia play into this? Minnesota is home to more than 60,000 Somali Americans , the largest such community in the nation. And indeed, both flags feature a star and a light blue field. But looking at both flags side by side reveals that they're not very similar.
(Wikimedia Commons)
(Wikimedia Commons)
Somalia's flag features a white, five-pointed star (representing the five Somali homelands) in the center of a light blue background (inspired by the United Nations, which helped Somalia gain independence), while Minnesota's uses an eight-pointed star specifically over the simplified state outline, which is in navy blue.
Sure, we admit there are similarities. But the resemblance is purely a coincidence, according to the commission's explanation of the symbols on the flag. The Dispatch , an online publication that openly describes itself as conservative, spoke with a representative from the Minnesota Historical Society, who confirmed that the similarities were coincidental:
The new Minnesota flag was not designed based on the Somali flag. The designer who submitted the design concept, who is from Luverne, Minnesota, cited many symbols and references of Minnesota as his design inspiration. The Commission further refined the design to represent important features of Minnesota including the North Star, the shape of the State of Minnesota, and blue representing the waters of Minnesota.
Finally, it's not uncommon for flags to look alike — sometimes much moreso than those of Minnesota and Somalia : Romania and Chad both use a tricolor design of vertical blue, yellow and red bars, while Indonesia and Monaco's flags both are horizontal stripes of red on top of white, for example.
Sources:
Bettin, Anthony, and WCCO Staff. Minnesota Changed Its State Flag. But Why? - CBS Minnesota. 13 May 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/new-flag-minnesota-explanation-history/ .
Demas, Alex. "Does Minnesota's New State Flag Resemble That of an Autonomous Somali State?" The Dispatch, 21 Dec. 2023, https://thedispatch.com/article/does-minnesotas-new-state-flag-resemble-that-of-an-autonomous-somali-state/ .
Derwin, Jack. "Elon Musk Just Discovered That Chad and Romania Have Almost Identical Flags — but They're Not the Only Lookalikes." Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-tweet-shows-chad-and-romania-have-identical-flags-2019-9 . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Epstein, Reid J., et al. "Tim Walz Is Kamala Harris's Choice for Vice President." The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2024. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/us/politics/kamala-harris-vp.html .
Flag of Minnesota | Meaning, Colors, & History | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Minnesota . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Flag of Somalia | Meaning, Colors & Symbolism | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Somalia . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
"Let It Wave: Minnesota's New Flag Takes Flight." MPR News, 11 May 2024, https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/05/11/new-minnesota-state-flag-debuts-state-capitol .
Minnesota Secretary Of State - State Flag. https://www.sos.state.mn.us/about-minnesota/state-symbols/state-flag/ . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Somali Population by State 2024. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/somali-population-by-state . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
The New Official Flag and Great Seal. Minnesota State Emblems Redesign Commission, 1 Jan. 2024, https://www.sos.state.mn.us/media/5892/2023-state-emblem-redesign-commission-report.pdf .
What Is The History Behind Minnesota's Somali-American Community? - CBS Minnesota. 23 July 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-somali-american-population-good-question/ .
"What to Know about Minnesota's New State Flag and Seal." PBS News, 3 Jan. 2024, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-know-about-minnesotas-new-state-flag-and-seal.
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