To Believe Is To Become What You

In America, The Traditional Routes To Black Identity Have Hardly Been Normal. Suicide (disappearance By Imitation, Or Willed Extinction), Violence (hysterical Religiosity, Crime, Armed Revolt), And Exemplary Moral Courage; None Of These Is Normal.

That Attitude That Fighting Is Probably Not Fair, But You Have To Defend Yourself Anyway And Damage The Enemy, Has Been Profoundly Consequential As Far As My Political Activism Goes.

And Who Will Join This Standing Up And The Ones Who Stood Without Sweet Company Will Sing And Sing Back Into The Mountains And If Necessary Even Under The Sea: We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For.

As A Child I Was Taught That To Tell The Truth Was Often Painful. As An Adult I Have Learned That Not To Tell The Truth Is More Painful, And That The Fear Of Telling The Truth - Whatever The Truth May Be - That Fear Is The Most Painful Sensation Of A Moral Life.

As A Poet And Writer, I Deeply Love And I Deeply Hate Words. I Love The Infinite Evidence And Change And Requirements And Possibilities Of Language; Every Human Use Of Words That Is Joyful, Or Honest Or New, Because Experience Is New... But As A Black Poet And Writer, I Hate Words That Cancel My Name And My History And The Freedom Of My Future: I Hate The Words That Condemn And Refuse The Language Of My People In America.