The Purity Paradox: How Tolerance and Intolerance Increase at the Same Time

Many years ago, as a high school sophomore, I took an elective called International Relations, taught by the social studies department chairman, a man who had a Ph.D. in political theory. I remember his hero was Hans J. Morgenthau. I did well in the class, despite the fact that I was competing mostly with seniors.

The next year I was in honors US History. The teacher of that class was good friends with the chairman of the department. The chairman told my teacher: Give Paul (my name) a C on his interim report card -- that will inspire him to work harder.

The fact is, I thought I was doing very well in that class. When I saw that C on my interim report card I was totally demotivated. When the teacher explained to me how the C was just ploy I came to an important realization: I would work much harder to maintain an A than I would to try to improve a C.

That is what I feel about the current environment. If you are white you are led to believe that you are a racist no matter what you do. Psychologically it is a bust. Black America, here is what you should do: Tell us that we've come a long way, we've given it a good faith effort -- but there are still some areas where things could be better.