My first hour in Haiti as a Haitian-American female aid worker was a detailed lesson on how sex abuse and the exploitation of vulnerable Haitian people is systemic in international development. A complete seismic shift needs to happen for the #Oxfam scandal to become Haiti's #metoo moment...

...that everybody knew. 

TPS for Haitians has ended and now is actually the time that the real work begins. Here's the strategy for the next 18 months...

...and if you're a fan of Narcos you probably had the same expectations of Medellin- Pablo Escobar's playground- that I did. 

Passport privilege divides black travelers, tourists, and expats into those with the power and access of Western passports (US, Canada, EU) and those without it...

After watching I Am Not Your Negro, as a current expat, I was not surprised that James Baldwin left the USA of the 1960s and 70s and went into a self-imposed exile in France. I reached out to fellow black expats and asked them a simple question: Do you feel freer outside of the US?  I was taken aback by the overwhelming responses I received: 

There is plenty of blame to go around: The Democrats failed to speak to the fears of majority, dismissing them as inconsequential. The average white voter failed to realize that we minorities have been drowning in this Titanic of America with them, not on the lifeboats with the 1%. 

Each of us is more than the worst we’ve ever done-or the burrito we couldn't pay for...

"You Americans think everything is racist. You guys can't take a joke " is something I hear anytime I point out an issue.  Well, are the Latinos right in that we can't take a joke?

I stood there shocked as he walked away, the realization of what just happened sinking in. It was not yet 8 a.m. in the morning and I had already experienced racism, sexism, paternalism, and classism all before I’d even had breakfast.

Today, with the murder of Alton Sterling, I scrolled through my timeline and again viewed the familiar disconnect as my white friends live in an America where the police serve and protect and my black friends live in one where the police harass and kill. That is our reality. 

The fact that Panama celebrated and embraced its citizens of Afro-descent this month in a region that often hides or derides its African roots is noteworthy. Yet it's how the people themselves embrace their African roots through music, food, dance, and discussions that made this month exceptional!

As a writer, I had never before encountered white female fragility positioned as a means of silencing black women's experiences until now... 

The exoticism of black bodies in the Caribbean has led to some of the black men preferring to date white women exclusively as their meal ticket to economic stability.  It was in a local club in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica where I’d finally had enough of this...

We need to acknowledge the unearned privileges we have as expats and then take that privilege down a notch.

It’s the quiet strength of the people that I have admired all my life that reminded me that I can lead, but would others willingly follow?

I had the pleasure of traveling to Mexico to attend  a conference to speak to-and learn from-Afro-Mexicans. 

No matter how often I’ve been asked, I cannot find a neat description for Haiti in just a few words.

Help us bring justice for the stateless people in the Dominican Republic.