SINCE I WAS TEN YEARS OLD, I HAVE BEEN CONSCIOUS OF THE VENALITY, HYPOCRASY, AND VISCIOUSNESS OF THE CRIMINAL SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES, BUILT ON RACIAL HATRED. I AM DESCENDED FROM A MIXED FAMILY, BUT MY APPEARANCE IS THAT OF A WHITE MAN. FOR THIS REASON WHITE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES (AND THEY ARE ALL RACISTS IN VARYING DEGREES) TALK AND ACT VERY FREELY IN FRONT OF ME. THUS GIVING ME AN INSIGHT INTO THEIR MENTALITY, SELDOM ACHIEVED BY A NEGRO WHO PUTS THEM ON THEIR GUARD. AS JOSÉ MARTÍ SAID, “I HAVE LIVED IN THE MONSTER, AND I KNOW HIM TO HIS ENTRAILS.”

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WHEN I WAS TEN YEARS OLD, I USED MY FISTS. WHEN I WAS THIRTY-FIVE, I USED THE PEN. I HOPE TO LIVE TO USE THE MACHINE-GUN. THE GERMANS NEEDED A STALINGRAD TO CURE THEM OF THEIR RACIAL DRUNKENNESS. THE WHITE NORTH-AMERICAN HAS BEEN DRUNK FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. MY HOPE IS THAT MY POEMS WILL PLAY SOME ROLE IN AROUSING THAT RIGHTEOUS ANGER AND FURY AND WILLINGNESS TO DIE WITHOUT WHICH NO PEOPLE WINS IT’S (SIC) LIBERTY.

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IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE MERIT OF MY POEMS LIES IN THE FACT THAT I WAS THE FIRST NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES, IN MODERN TIMES, TO EMBRACE THE NATIONALISTIC APPROACH AND REJECT THE “ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS” SCHOOL, WHICH WANTS TO WIN OVER THE WHITE MAN, BY APPEALING TO HIS GOOD NATURE. MOST OF THESE POEMS WERE WRITTEN IN 1950, AND NOW THE NEGRO GHETTOS OF THE UNITED STATES ABOUND WITH NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS OF THE BLACK MOVEMENT. OF COURSE, THIS IS PART OF THE GENERAL WORLD COLONIAL REVOLUTION. ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS. BUT THE INTRODUCTION IN MY UNPUBLISHED BOOK STATES “THE WHITE MAN IS MY BROTHER…….HIS NAME IS CAIN.”

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HOWEVER, THERE WAS A PERIOD IN MY LIFE WHEN I HOPED THAT BY BUILDING LEFT-WING ORGANIZATIONS WITHOUT RESPECT TO COLOUR, WE COULD DO AWAY WITH THE RANK INJUSTICE IN THE STATES. AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II, I DISCOVERED THAT EVEN THE WHITE RADICALS WERE NOT INTERESTED IN A RADICAL SOLUTION TO THE NEGRO QUESTION. ONE MIGHT SAY THAT THE DEVELOPMENT IN MY THINKING AND WRITING CAN BE STATED AS FOLLOWS: 

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I LIVED MANY YEARS, THINKING TO TEACH THE AMERICAN WHITE MAN.
I DISCOVERED THAT THE TASK IS TO KILL HIM.

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