Let us extend the title by saying "but he did live in a different time period when there was generally far less consciousness about racism and
anti-racism, among those who did not experience racism themselves."
I did not extend the title in that way, because I've been explictly asked to keep my titles shorter.
Although I have lost track of the book a long time ago, I did read Kahn's "About the New Yorker and me" soon after it was published in 1988.
I do have a remarkably good memory, and I think I can accurately recall
a large part of what I read.
Although I read nothing in that book which could fairly be described
as "racist", I have strong memories of parts of the text which have a
clear flavour of "I'm not racist myself but I can't do anything about
the fact of racism in others and I think we should all just chill about the issue." [Of course, that is not a direct quote.]
For example, I remember him as critical of boycotts of South Africa
during the anti-apartheid era, and saying that you can't force (US) private members' clubs to admit everyone etc. etc.

Well, ok, Paul. But WTF does this have to do with backgammon??
Well, Kahn was an avid bg player (though I really doubt that he was
any good compared to someone like me [though that may be an unfair
comparison]) and he did write quite a bit about the game.
Some of those pieces can be retrieved here: https://www.google.com/search?q=e+j+kahn+backgammon

Thanks for listening to my ramble.

Paul

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