Must not juxtapose mention of baboons with mention of Africans

The passage was on the blog of the London Review of Books

"R. W. Johnson, an author and emeritus fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, described the aggressive behaviour of baboons near Cape Town in the first paragraph of the article.

He then juxtaposed this with a second paragraph about migrants and xenophobic attacks in a nearby settlement, prompting widespread criticism and a letter of complaint to the LRB, signed by 73 individuals, including prominent academics and journalists from various countries.

Critics felt that the article was racist, a charge that Johnson has denied. The LRB removed the posting and later made an apology for the post.

Source

So that readers can judge for themselves, I reproduce the censored passage below. Apparently it is wrong to say that both baboons and poor Africans were looking for food:

“We are being besieged by baboons again. This happens quite often here on the Constantiaberg mountains (an extension of the Table Mountain range). Baboons are common in the Cape and they are a great deal larger than the vervet monkeys I was used to dealing with in KwaZulu-Natal. They jump onto roofs, overturn dustbins and generally make a nuisance of themselves; since their teeth are very dirty, their bite can be poisonous. They seem to have lots of baby baboons – it’s been a very mild winter and so spring is coming early – and they’re looking for food. The local dogs don’t like them but appear to have learned their lesson from the last baboon visit: then, a large rottweiler attacked the apes, who calmly tore it limb from limb.

“Meanwhile in the squatter camps, there is rising tension as the threat mounts of murderous violence against foreign migrants once the World Cup finishes on 11 July. These migrants – Zimbabweans, Malawians, Congolese, Angolans, Somalis and others – are often refugees and they too are here essentially searching for food. The Somalis are the most enterprising and have set up successful little shops in the townships and squatter camps, but several dozen Somali shopkeepers have already been murdered, clearly at the instigation of local black shopkeepers who don’t appreciate the competition. The ANC is embarrassed by it all and has roundly declared that there will be no such violence. The truth is that no one knows. The place worst hit by violence in the last xenophobic riots here was De Doorns and the army moved into that settlement last week, clearly anticipating trouble. The tension is ominous and makes for a rather schizoid atmosphere as the Cup itself mounts towards its climax.”

It seems to me that nobody would be worried about the juxtaposition unless they could see something in a comparison between blacks and baboons. So in that case, the ban on the above passage tells us rather a lot about what was in the minds of those who banned it.