Tolerance of exceptional individuals depends on a background mass against which they stand out.

Evidence

Socially speaking, this meant that the remaining Jews in Prussia had lost the native background against which they had been measured as exceptions. Now they themselves composed such a background, but a contracted one, against which the individual had to strain doubly in order to stand out at all. “Exception Jews” were once again simply Jews, not exceptions from but representatives of a despised people. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 206

Categorization

• XREF: The exception-versus-representative dynamic prefigures how tolerated Muslim professionals function in liberal societies — praised as exceptions from, not representatives of, a stigmatized group. — connects to: High status requires others believing one possesses rare, valuable talents — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 78
• DEFINE: The ‘exception Jew’ concept: an individual granted acceptance precisely because they are seen as unlike the group.