An anecdote that didn't make the cut had to do with a book Pace said he was reading: The Black White Divide in America -- Still. The book was written by Ralph Gordon, a former president of the Philadelphia chapter of the BDPA, and Marlin Foxworth, a white superintendent of schools who is an advocate for a program to improve the educational performance of African-Americans and other disadvantaged youth in his California school district.

"In the book, [Foxworth] talks about how, after one of the school board meetings, another white educator walked up to him and in essence said, 'What are you doing? Are you trying to become one of them?' " Pace recounted. "That kind of pressure can keep in check even a person who wants to advocate for movement. Their peer pressure would in essence be saying, 'What are you trying to do? There are some white folks who should get that increase or position. Why are you doing what you're doing?' "

The reason I'm mentioning that anecdote here is to set the context for what Pace said next.

"I don't want to come across as a whiner," he said. "It is a recognition of these obstacles that has driven BDPA, and in particular Earl Pace, these past 33 or 34 years, not just an 'Oh, woe is me' kind of position. You've got to realize what you have to overcome in order to attack it."

Indeed, no one wants to be perceived as a whiner. What's troubling is that too many African-Americans are concerned about that perception, and it's thwarting the discussion we so desperately need to have.