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Growing up a black woman has taught me a lot about the world.

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It’s fine to love where you and your family come from, but be cool about it.

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Let me say this once and for all: stop trying to box me in to your simplistic view of the world.

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I get angry at expat Americans who make no effort to assimilate into their new culture. I see photos on Facebook of study abroad students, gap year travellers, posing alongside groups of other Americans.

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I kept hearing my parents say juicy and crab meat in the same sentence. I did not know crab meat. But eventually I developed a need for the crab meat I had never seen.

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I was in my early twenties when I moved halfway around the world, naively thinking I could start over and integrate myself quickly since I was raised on American television, sang Britney Spears songs and ate my share of Trix (because Jerry Seinfeld said it was his favorite). I believed I was young, educated and smitten enough to make things happen…