Get Used To Me, I Am Not

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.

Everything Can Be Explained To The People, On The Single Condition That You Want Them To Understand.

Negrophobes Exist. It Is Not Hatred Of The Negro, However, That Motivates Them; They Lack The Courage For That, Or They Have Lost It. Hate Is Not Inborn; It Has To Be Constantly Cultivated, To Be Brought Into Being, In Conflict With More Or Less Recognized Guilt Complexes. Hate Demands Existence And He Who Hates Has To Show His Hate In Appropriate Actions And Behavior; In A Sense, He Has To Become Hate. That Is Why Americans Have Substituted Discrimination For Lynching. Each To His Own Side Of The Street.

He Who Is Reluctant To Recognize Me Opposes Me.

Today I Believe In The Possibility Of Love; That Is Why I Endeavor To Trace Its Imperfections, Its Perversions.