It will be argued that this little tale is not authenticated; but simply that it could be born and survive through the years is an indication: It is no fallacy. For the anecdote renews a conflict that, active or dormant, is always real. Its persistence attests to the black world's endorsement. To say it another way, when a story flourishes in the heart of a folklore, it is because in one way or another it expresses an aspect of "the spirit of the group."

Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, loc. 230