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of orgasm was unattainable. She could not experience it, so she
avenged herself by losing herself in speculation.
One thing must be mentioned in this connection: A white
woman who has had a Negro lover fi nds it diffi cult to return to
white men. Or so at least it is believed, particularly by white men:
“Who knows what ‘they’ can give a woman?” Who indeed does
know? Certainly “they” do not. On this subject I cannot overlook
this comment by Etiemble:

Racial jealousy produces the crimes of racism: To many white men, the
black is simply that marvelous sword which, once it has transfi xed their
wives, leaves them forever transfi gured. My statistical sources have been
able to provide me with no documentation on this point. I have, however,
known some Negroes; some white women who have had Negroes; and,
fi nally, some Negro women who have had white lovers. I have heard enough
confi dences from all of them to be able to deplore the fact that M. Cournot
applies his talents to the rejuvenation of a fable in which the white man
will always be able to fi nd a specious argument: shameful, dubious, and
thus doubly effective. 33
An endless task, the cataloguing of reality. We accumulate facts,
we discuss them, but with every line that is written, with every
statement that is made, one has the feeling of incompleteness.
Attacking J.-P. Sartre, Gabriel d’Arbousier wrote:

This anthology, which puts Antilleans, Guianans, Senegalese, and Malagasies
on the same footing, creates a deplorable confusion. In this way it states
the cultural problem of the overseas countries by detaching it from the
historical and social reality of each of them, from the national character-
istics and the varying conditions imposed on each of them by imperialist
exploitation and oppression. Thus, when Sartre wrote, “Simply by plunging
into the depths of his memory as a former slave, the black man asserts that
suffering is the lot of man and that it is no less undeserved on that account,”
did he take into consideration what that might mean for a Hova, a Moor, a
Touareg, a Peul, or a Bantu of the Congo or the Ivory Coast? 34

33. “Sur le Martinique de M. Michel Cournot,” Les Temps Modernes, February, 1950,
p. 1505.
34. “Une dangereuse mystifi cation: la théorie de la négritude,” La Nouvelle Revue
Critique, June, 1949.

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