By Rita Apaloo

When I first moved to the United States, I quickly learned that some in the African community believe that in order to get ahead or fully realize the “American way of life,” you have to break away from the pack or dissociate yourself from the African community both physically and socially. The idea being that there are people and activities in the community that will only drag down the serious, hard-working ones who are trying to succeed. Therefore, avoiding being bundled-up with other Africans, they figure, is one way to resolve the problem.