Certain Things Need To Be Said If

For A Colonized People The Most Essential Value, Because The Most Concrete, Is First And Foremost The Land: The Land Which Will Bring Them Bread And, Above All, Dignity.

I Am Black; I Am In Total Fusion With The World, In Sympathetic Affinity With The Earth, Losing My Id In The Heart Of The Cosmos -- And The White Man, However Intelligent He May Be, Is Incapable Of Understanding Louis Armstrong Or Songs From The Congo. I Am Black, Not Because Of A Curse, But Because My Skin Has Been Able To Capture All The Cosmic Effluvia. I Am Truly A Drop Of Sun Under The Earth.

Introducing Someone As A "negro Poet With A University Degree" Or Again, Quite Simply, The Expression, "a Great Black Poet." These Ready-made Phrases, Which Seem In A Common-sense Way To Fill A Need-or Have A Hidden Subtlety, A Permanent Rub.

...there Are Too Many Idiots In This World. And Having Said It, I Have The Burden Of Proving It.

The Misfortune Of The Man Of Color Is Having Been Enslaved. The Misfortune And Inhumanity Of The White Man Are Having Killed Man Somewhere.