Any successful black person will have to face suspicion within his or her own community about his or her loyalty to other blacks.

Many people believe that determining who is 'black' is rather easy, a task simplified by the administration of the one-drop rule. Under the one-drop rule, any discernible African ancestry stamps a person as 'black.'

As soon as you say that there is a community called, let's say, black Americans, you've immediately created a boundary line - who's in that group, who's outside that group.

Let's be very clear: Living 'unforgiven' is not the sole domain of blacks. It can be found in any successful person.

In elite, primarily white institutions, there are many blacks who have white wives. So much so that sometimes there is almost the assumption that I would be married to a white woman.

Segregation, in a sense, helped create and maintain black solidarity.