To the White Fiends
Claude McKay 1890–1948
THINK you I am not fiend and savage too?
Think you I could not arm me with a gun
And shoot down ten of you for every one
Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?
Be not deceived, for every deed you do
5
I could match—out-match: am I not Africa’s son,
Black of that black land where black deeds are done?
But the Almighty from the darkness drew
My soul and said: Even thou shaft be a light
Awhile to burn on the benighted earth,
10
Thy dusky face I set among the white
For thee to prove thyself of highest worth;
Before the world is swallowed up in night,
To show thy little lamp: go forth, go forth!
“To the White Friends” is a good example of poetry about the tension and trouble in relationships. Claude McKay discusses relationship that exists between the whites and blacks in America. He says that the whites are treating his people very poorly, and that he is just as capable of doing the terrible things that they do to him. He will not do these malicious things, however, because God has shown him a light, giving him hope for a new, better life.
