Regarding the "inferior intelligence" of black people:

Overall, it is probably true, just as it is incontestable that Chinese and Inuit people are smarter than all the rest of us, and likeliest to attend and graduate from Harvard. But stupid is stupid, and I'd rank some of my own relatives with those who grew up drinking the tap-water in Flint, Michigan. I'm quite aware that having an I.Q. of 65 does not, in itself, make you a bad person. But--and here's the crucial qualification--I have taken a 19th century French Literature course in college, taught by a thin-lipped but coal-black native of Cameroon (raised in a respectable, polygamous household), who liked my French prose style. And nothing makes you more equal buddies than that.

Gotta say, André and I really first hit it off in his class, the day we were discussing one of the Alfreds--de Vigny, or de Musset (I forget which)--and I was saying how classical his poetry sounded to me, "like 'Lente, lentie currite noctis equii....'" And André said, "Mon dieu, Latin!" with this politely appalled expression that quite won my heart.