Joe's yarmulke is a visual clue. That he likes to be called Yosi (shortened from Yosef) is another. And loud lunchroom cell phone conversations with his Israeli wife and associates leave no doubt.
I kidded him about needing to be more discreet when contacting his Mossad handlers.
Although he was born in Morocco, it's his Chicago accent that gets in the way of understanding his attempts at conversational Hebrew.
Keisha, from California, is a single mom with a teenage daughter who's sometimes trouble. And she'd worry about that.
One day to cheer her up, I told her I'd always pictured her leaving work and stepping into the starring role of a glamorous hip hop video... No thugz, just bling.
And for a moment she smiled at the thought of being cast as Mariah Carey, and laughed at the thought of it all. Her parents had given her a middle initial that matched her first and last... Imagine KKK on BET!
Fiona's family story may have something to do with a career in real estate. As a child of British nobility, born in Rhodesia, she knows what it's like to lose what you thought you owned.
Robert Mugabe's rule in the emergent Zimbabwe brought "land reform" that mainly consisted of stripping away property rights acquired during colonial days.
Although her siblings also came to America, her parents chose to remain in the troubled country... At home.
Taban means shining or resplendent in Arabic. It seems especially appropriate when you see his brilliant smile.
I attended his wedding to Regina and the baptism of their son Jacob. Taban had gotten a good rhythm going when renouncing the devil and all his works and missed his cue to respond differently when the topic turned to accepting Jesus... So he renounced him, too.
In their native Sudan the baptism itself would have been a problem as ethnic Arabs professing Islam pursued a campaign of genocide.
Yosi, Keisha, Fiona and Taban. Four friends of different color, experience and background... All with legitimate claims to being African Americans on the 2010 census.
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Earthquake, tsunami,
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