Norman Podhoretz discusses his "Negro problem" as a Jewish intellectual in New York City in the 1960s, feeling alienated from both black civil rights leaders and from supporters of racial segregation. He struggles with how to think about and discuss the issues of race and civil rights in America during this transformative period. Podhoretz believes these challenges facing Jewish intellectuals are representative of the difficulties all of America was having grappling with racial tensions and progressing toward integration and equality.