Wretched III

"The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their ‘vital interests’ are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the ‘sanctity’ of human life, or the ‘conscience’ of the civilized world."

-James Baldwin,

"The Devil Finds Work" (1976),

reprinted in "The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985"