My conclusion that we, as a society, seem to believe that black people (or anyone else) can only become successful if they see instances of others of the same race/gender/sexual orientation/religion, etc. having attained a similar type of success is based on the fact that there are constant demands being made for “representation” of this sort, whether on television, in movies, in books, etc. I, of course, don’t think that such “representation” is actually necessary in a healthy society, which is one in which these kinds of identities would not be significant in the first place.