It would be inconceivable that this unleashing of generosity provoked by the writer could be used to authorize an injustice, and that the reader could enjoy his freedom while reading a work which approves or accepts or simply abstains from condemning the subjection of person by person. One can imagine a good novel being written by an African American even if hatred of the whites were spread all over it, because it is the freedom of his race that he demands through this hatred. And, as he invited me to assume the attitude of generosity, the moment I feel myself a pure freedom I cannot bear to identify myself with a race of oppressors. Thus, I require of all freedoms that they demand the liberation of people of color against the white race and against myself in so far as I am part of it, but nobody can suppose for a moment that it is possible to write a good novel in praise of anti-Semitism. For, the moment I feel that my freedom is indissolubly linked with that of all other people, it cannot be demanded of me that I use it to approve the enslavement of a part of these people. Thus, whether they are an essayist, a pamphleteer, a satirist, or a novelist, whether they speak only of individual passion or whether they attack the social order, the writer, a free person addressing free people, has only one subject—freedom.
