“You are not welcome here.”
Beauty influencer Salma Abdi (@hijabieveryydayy) and friend Anisa Hussein (@anisahusseinn) say a visit to Sonny’s Ice Cream Cafe, a Minneapolis staple that’s been on Instagram since 1945, has turned into hostility, at least in their minds. They said a Sonny employee confronted them over taking photos, an encounter the Somali women called “racist.”
Sonny’s workers prevent Somali woman from taking photos
Abdi explain She and Hussein were allegedly taking photos outside Sonny’s at 3403 S. Lindale Ave. when a woman approached them and told them they were not allowed to take photos unless they reserved the venue. It was unclear whether the woman was an employee or owner. “She doesn’t look like the owner,” Abdi told her followers, before adding with a laugh, “No offense. No shade.”
The confrontations didn’t stop on the sidewalk, either, she said. According to Abdi, once they decided to go in, they were told to either line up and order something or leave. The exchange upset both women and a third friend, apparently enough to make it the talk of TikTok. “She was so disrespectful,” Abdi said, later calling the woman a racist.
Abdi said other patrons saw what was happening to them and walked out in a similar show of solidarity. “When they saw how she treated us, everyone said, ‘Forget it,'” she recalled. Both women urged followers to leave negative reviews on Google and avoid the place entirely. Hussein’s final verdict was succinct: “Zero out of 10.”
“We have the same experience”
In the comments section, viewers said the same thing happened to them at Sonny’s house.
“My friend and I went through the exact same thing,” one commenter said. Then another person comes along: “You’re not exaggerating. We’ve been through the same thing; it’s crazy.”
Another commenter noticed something interesting. “I think they deleted all the comments people left, or had Google delete it, because I saw there were 400 comments, but when I clicked on it, the latest one was from two weeks ago,” they wrote.
Upon review, this person appears to be correct. A quick look at Sonny’s Google reviews shows that the most recent reviews are from a few weeks ago. This seems unlikely to happen.
That said, none of this is evidence of racism. But the fact that multiple parties seem to have the same experience suggests there may be a problem.
familiar chill
The encounters Abdi and Hussein describe are part of a growing, well-documented pattern of hostility toward Somali women who wear headscarves in public-facing businesses. In December 2025, a Cinnabon employee in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, was fired for making a racial slur against a Somali Muslim couple and mocking the woman’s hijab — an incident that was captured on TikTok and sparked national attention and a competitive crowdfunding campaign.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations documented a record 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination in its 2026 civil rights report, with the organization’s Minnesota chapter alone recording 693 incidents in 2025. Among them, employment discrimination is the most common. But everyday public hostility—the kind you might find in ice cream parlors and fast-food counters—constitutes its own corrosive category. They rarely result in legal complaints, but they continually undermine the sense that certain spaces are for everyone.
Having said that, even in this case, racism is difficult to prove.
AllHipHop has contacted Abdi and Hussein via TikTok private messages and comments, and contacted Sonny’s Ice Cream Cafe via email for more information. We will update this story if either party responds.
