“'Negro' is an interesting word. This country could not call us Africans, because if it had, we would have understood some things about ourselves. We would not have been this 'Negro America', constantly enslaved even after slavery. It would have given us a sense of continuity. So, they had to say 'colored' and 'Negro' and 'nigger' to keep us in our place- to remind us that we were only from this country.”

---Sonia Sanchez, circa 1999.

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Sonia Sanchez (born Wilsonia Benita Driver, September 9, 1934) is an Afrikan poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement. She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays, and children's books. She was a recipient of 1993 Pew Fellowships in the Arts.