Sir: It seems to me that some very bizarre things
were written about the William Cash article by your contributors in the 19 November issue (Letters). To be honest, I have always taken it for granted that many of the people who write for you are racist, and I would probably not want to meet them in the flesh. And yet I, a black man, have been reading your magazine since my teens, nearly 15 years ago. I cannot count the number of racist jokes, comments and sheer refuse (a fairly recent example was an article by a former editor of yours headed, `Would you let your daughter marry a black man?' or something of the sort) that con- stantly hits my eyes. I am not a masochist, yet I prefer your magazine to the New Statesman, because it is better written and more entertaining.
Therefore, I cannot understand the whin- ing by your two contributors over the furore caused by the Cash article. By all means write such stuff, but don't pretend to be shocked when it makes some people angry. And some of Dominic Lawson's arguments are facile at best (`Taboo or not taboo, that is the question', 19 November). Why is he surprised at Miss Shlaes being ostracised by her colleagues? If black people in America were not expected to hate whites because of the white madman, Jeffrey Dahmer, why is it acceptable for Colin Ferguson, a black madman, to be used as a metaphor for what blacks supposedly feel about whites?
My fear in all this is that now you have received a thrashing from some very heavy- weight Jewish guns, blacks will be the only ones left to taunt, and that would be a pity, not to say offensive.
Daniel Gwire
70 Radipole Road, London SW6
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