Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented
with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.
To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.
Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.
I am black; I am in total fusion with the world, in sympathetic affinity with the earth, losing my id in the heart of the cosmos -- and the white man, however intelligent he may be, is incapable of understanding Louis Armstrong or songs from the Congo. I am black, not because of a curse, but because my skin has been able to capture all the cosmic effluvia. I am truly a drop of sun under the earth.
The oppressed will always believe the worst about themselves.
There are too many idiots in this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.
O my body, make of me always a man who questions!
Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand.