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… is from page 173 of the original, 1964 edition of W.H. Hutt’s The Economics of the Colour Bar [2]:
When we buy a product in the free market, we do not ask: What was the colour of the person who made it? Nor do we ask about the sex, race, nationality, religion or political opinions of the producer. All we are interested in is whether it is good value for money. Hence it is in the interest of business men (who must try to produce at least cost in anticipation of demand) not only to seek out and employ the least privileged classes (excluded by custom or legislation from more remunerative employments) but actually to educate them for these opportunities by investing in them. I have tried to show that in South Africa it has been to the advantage of investors as a whole that all colour bars should be broken down; and that the managements of commercial and industrial firms (when they have not been intimidated by politicians wielding the planning powers of the state) have striven to find methods of providing more productive and better remunerated opportunities for the non-Whites.
DBx: A few ideologically blinkered, poorly informed, and – judging from what they write – reading-challenged ‘intellectuals’ have been on a crusade lately to portray Hutt as a racist. Fortunately, anyone with the reading comprehension of at least a sixth-grader can directly consult Hutt’s work in order to judge for himself or herself if Hutt was a racist. Such a person – one who is actually able to read, and to do so without a pre-ordained conclusion in mind – will clearly see that the charge of racism against Hutt is pure nonsense.