Deny the Negro the culture of the land? O.K. He'll brew his own culture – on the street corner. Lock him out from the seats of higher learning? He pays it no never mind – he'll dream up his own professional doubletalk, from the professions that are available to him … These boys I ran with at The Corner, breathing half-comic prayers at the Tree of Hope, they were the new sophisticates of the race, the jivers, the sweettalkers, the jawblockers. They spouted at each other like soldiers sharpening their bayonets – what they were sharpening, in all this verbal horseplay, was their wits, the only weapons they had. Their sophistication didn't come out of moldy books and dicty colleges. It came from opening their eyes wide and gunning the world hard.

…They were the genius of the people, always on their toes, never missing a trick, asking no favors and taking no guff, not looking for trouble but solid ready for it. Spawned in a social vacuum and hung up in mid-air, they were beginning to build their own culture. Their language was a declaration of independence.

Black is …: Being so nasty and filthy you cook in all the big downtown restaurants … Exploited by the news/Tortured by the blues/breaking the rules/and paying your dues … Realizing ‘they’ all look alike too! … Playing the ‘dozens!’