"After he woke up I was crying, I couldn't control myself, and he said, 'If you love me don't cry, '" Omar recalls, eyes slightly widening, acknowledging our amazement at his brother's strength.
Perhaps even more so because I have been listening to the dialogue about how to make America more post-racial -- mostly as it pertains to black and white culture -- for so long that it never occurred to me that an Asian immigrant family might cry foul when their son fell in love with an all-American girl like me.
His debut album "Justified, " which spawned hits like "Rock Your Body, " "Cry Me a River, " and "Like I Love You, " soon became hot enough to land him on the biggest stage of all.