Edney Silvestre doesn't see the problem, in the Lust & Colour debate. 'In Brazil we're all mixed anyway' #WU12

Robert Vuijsje reads aloud (click here!)

"It's raw. The language is very powerful" - calls Brazilian writer Edney Silvestre the passage read by his Dutch colleague Robert Vuijsje. It reminds him of when he was a teenager, reading Henry Miller. "By comparison, this is a bit of a children's story," he says.

The tone is set. In the chaotic Lust & Colour debate, Wim Brands asked three authors about the confluence of horniness and skin colour. A tricky subject. They didn't quite get there.

Vuijsje - around the publication of his book Only Neat People accused of racism by politically correct Holland, and nailed to the cross - was allowed to make the opening speech, and then explain the eroticising effect of the Dark Woman and its clichés to Brands. Perhaps with the fuss surrounding his book still in the back of his mind, Vuijsje was very wary. "Every person simply has his preferences," he said.

Edney Silvestre reads aloud (click here!)

You are Jewish, Silvestre asks Vuijsje. "Do you consider yourself white?" White yes, replies Vuijsje. "But part of a minority." During a stay in the United States, Silvestre was constantly asked about his own ethnic background. He laughs sardonically. "They thought I was too white to be Brazilian. But we Brazilians are all genetically so mixed that there is really no question of racism."

In her novel, South African Kopano Matlwa describes the twisted power relationship between a white priest and his black maids. In her country, she sees overt racism declining more and more. "But that has given way to an indifferent form of tolerance. There are still a lot of racial taboos and we all walk on eggshells. There is no need for that. We should dare to be much more open."

Kopano Matlaw reads aloud (click here!)

Silvestre actually finds it rather strange to connect lust with skin colour. "Lust in my work has much more to do with domination and power. THAT is the big problem in my country, social and ecomomic inequality - not racism."