About

Bananas and Rice Girl refers to memes referencing a viral video of Somali-American woman Nasra Ahmed, an American citizen, speaking about being assaulted and harassed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, then detained for two days. During the speech, she says that being Somali is not just about eating bananas and rice, and then awkwardly says "bananas and rice" several more times while trying to describe what it's like to be Somali in America. The speech was uploaded online on January 21st, 2026, and the bananas and rice clip went viral as the subject of reactions, memes and mockery over the following days, inspiring memes using "bananas and rice" as a catchphrase.

Origin

On January 21st, 2026, a video of Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old Somali woman and American citizen from St. Paul, Minnesota, speaking about an incident with ICE agents was posted to the Fox 9 YouTube^[1] channel. In the video, Ahmed speaks at the Minnesota State Capitol press briefing room about being assaulted and harassed by ICE agents, given a concussion, and being wrongfully detained for two days. According to Ahmed, ICE was going after two people she did not know, and they shoved her to the ground in the process of detaining them, also calling her a racial slur.^[2]

At about the 6:14 timestamp, Ahmed talks about what it means to be a proud Somali. She says, "Being Somali isn't just eating bananas with rice," then awkwardly laughs. She stumbles with her words for a few seconds and says it's hard to describe what being American Somali is, then likening it to bananas and rice. She says, "People don't think you can eat bananas with rice, but that's what it's like to be Somali and American." She then says people will eventually "get what she means."

Spread

The clip of Nasra Ahmed talking about bananas and rice went viral over the following days in late January 2026, inspiring memes and reactions. Much of the content about Ahmed is negative in tone towards Somalis in general.

For example, on January 23rd, 2026, TikToker^[3] @thescoop.politics posted the clip with the disparaging caption, "Trump hating Somali woman attempts to speak a coherent thought," garnering over 1.1 million views in five days.

The clip was also posted by X^[4] user @EndWokeness that day, garnering over 110,000 likes, 14,000 reposts and 22 million views in five days.

Later on January 23rd, X^[5] user @TonyMichaelX posted, "Somali n----s be like 'being American is like banana and rice' and then eat your dog," garnering over 6,800 likes in five days.

On January 24th, TikToker^[6] @hayleycaronia posted an Accuracy Reenactment meme based on the video in which she alters the speech to be about being American, garnering over 78,000 likes in four days.

The original clip was posted to the /r/AskThe_Donald^[7] subreddit that day, gaining over 650 upvotes in the same span of time.

Also on January 24th, 2026, Instagram^[8] user presidentialreviews posted an Impractical Jokers meme portraying the bananas and rice clip as a prank, garnering over 4,700 likes in four days.

Arrest

On January 28th, 2026, it was reported^[9][10] that Nasra Ahmed was arrested in Minneapolis for "assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees" while rioting in the state. Her mugshot, along with the mugshots of the other arrested rioters, began to spread online.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References