BLACK SCARS, WHITE FEARS

Robin Wright’s insightful essay (“Black Scars, White Fears,” Aug. 19) left me uneasy. I share her delight in the changes occurring in South Africa but feel that she failed to focus on the key issue of central power. The essential question is not whether these reforms will create a new, tolerant society. It is whether these reforms will end exclusive white power.

The suggestion that a new etiquette of communication, an improved black living standard and the repeal of apartheid laws will lead to racial reconciliation is false. This is a subterfuge that works to renovate, rather than eliminate, the racial system. Opponents of the minority regime will not grow content with social progress. It is the essence of power and not the style of government that will constitute fundamental change in South Africa.

SHELDON M. GOLDMAN

North Hollywood