{Wavelengths}[c.15th July 1980]

[Redbook2:165][19800715:1840]{Wavelengths}[c.15^th July 1980]

19800715.1840

The Times review of [BBC TV's] Panorama on South Africa quotes a 'dim-looking' factory foreman on the speed of reforms: 'the black man's mind “doesn't go that fast” '. The image is of the white boss, fluent in his criticism, and the dumb black employee. But I know how it may be: I have worked in places where any criticism of me, if it was unjustified, was likely to rest on a set of assumptions differing so greatly and so numerously from my own framework that no explanation would have been practical, given the circumstances, even if it could have been understood.

A less charitable analysis would be that the black man (in this instance), far from being too stupid or slow to follow the white man, is simply too fast or too far to lead him.

Once again, they are 'on a different wavelength'; but only one of them knows.

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