“Ostentatious men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite.”

— José Martí

My Race (1893)
Context: Ostentatious men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite. True men, black and white, will treat one another with loyalty and tenderness, out of a sense of merit and the pride of everyone who honors the land in which we were born, black and white alike. Negroes, who now use the word "racist" in good faith, will stop using it when they realize it is the only apparently valid argument that weak men, who honestly believe that Negroes are inferior, use to deny them the full exercise of their rights as men. White and black racists would be equally guilty of racism.

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José Martí 103

Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader 1853–1895

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“Ostentatious men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite.”

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José Martí 103

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