Note 136 — Chapter XI · FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

I am indebted to my friend Major O. Berkeley-Hill for the suggestion that the attraction which women often feel for men of a racially more primitive type, and the corresponding jealousy that the (often subconscious) perception of this attraction arouses in men of the women's own race, are among the most important factors which prevent the reconciliation or co-operation of different races and which are the cause of much of the brutality and violence which a superior race is apt to exercise towards an inferior one. (Cp. the frequent lynchings of negroes for real or supposed sexual offences in America, or the anti-negro or anti-Chinese riots that are of not infrequent occurrence in English seaport towns.) If this should be true (and there can be little doubt that it applies to certain cases) it would appear that we are dealing with a psychological fact possessing historical and sociological bearings of even wider significance than would at first appear—bearings which must be kept in mind in all attempts to produce rapprochement or better understanding between the different races of mankind. (For a study of the tendency in question in individual cases Cp. the novels of Robert Hichens, e. g. "Bella Donna" and "Barbary Sheep")