StR,-1 am tired 'of pulling Mr. Isherwood's leg; he is
much too earnest about this subject of racial superiority, and the kinds of half-truths and mis- information he trots out as conclusive arguments in support of his case lead me to agree heartily that his 'European brain' weighs much too heavily' on him.
Nowhere, for instance, do I hold that there is any such thing as 'racial performance' as Mr. Isher- wood incorrectly states; nor do I think there are any objective conditions and standards within which and whereby the cultural achievements of various races can be compared. I had thought that Mr. Isherwood was going to prove that Negroes are congenitally inferior to white people. Apparently he is now content to rest his case upon the view of some authorities that 'the Negro brain not only weighs less on average, but that Negro and white are in no respect identical either intellectually or emotionally. But is that sufficient reason for Mr. Isherwood to assume his superiority to a Negro Person?
If Mr. Isherwood thinks the African mind was a tabula rasa before the advent of the white master in the colonies, to which he then proceeded to im- Print the mark of his own scholarship, then I think Mr. Wilson's government ought to move apace with
seriously needed reforms in the education of English- men; pending such reforms in the lower forms Mr. Isherwood can inquire at the London School of African and Oriental Studies whether they should not consider his case an urgent one. All those learned professors who are studying African thought and culture spend considerably less time throwing bones, Mr. Isherwood, I can assure you.
As for this fear of Negroes pursuing the sacred 'white woman,' forget it, Mr. Isherwood. The rumour is completely unfounded. It's the Negro male who needs protection from your women. The white man either knows or suspects this; hence his hysteria and fantasies about the threat to the 'herrenfrau.'
9 Cross Keys Close, WI
LEWIS NKOSI
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