Historically, it must be understood that the Negro wants to speak French because it is the key that can open doors which were still barred to him fifty years ago. In the Antilles Negro who comes within this study we find a quest for subtleties, for refinements of language–so many further means of proving to himself that he has measured up to the culture.

Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, loc. 149