I've got those, too - all three. One of the jobs - the convenience store with the Subway franchise wedged into one side - even occasionally requires cleaning a public toilet. Other than that, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to stay afloat, I share absolutely nothing in common with Adama (well, not quite - I wear a nickel bracelet I bought at the Smithsonian Africa and Asia Museum which was made in Mali, but that's completely irrelevant). On the other hand, that's plenty to share.

What I get out of the Wash. Post piece is our culture's tendency to instantly categorize, coupled with the same culture's total (and, I sometimes wonder, deliberate?) ignorance of the rest of the world. I've seen it happen many times, in my former professional days, to immigrant workers from all over the world. Our culture's ignorance of and preconceptions about Africa are probably the worst of the lot.

No facts to cite; merely anecdotal.