Black Nate Grey
The God Emperor of Mankind
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is best known for creating the Cthulhu mythos, among other cosmic horrors. The man himself was enamored with fear both known and unknown, this was reflected in his writing where humanity is seen as a insignificant neutrino compared to the horrific grand machinations of alien gods. Even secondhand accounts of these beings is enough to induce madness.
He was also a huge racist. I mean obsessed. Did his New England heritage play a part in this? Was he a "man of his time"? No matter the answer, the things he wrote about black people especially bordered on straight up obsession. I've always wondered about the thought process of those that believed they are "superior" to another "Insert Label" why they obsess over thier supposed "lesser".
In 1912 he wrote this charming piece.
"On the creation of ******s"
When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a ******.
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a ******.
Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_******s
These views were not only privately held but seeped into his stories as well.
Herbert West: Reanimator
*Funny thing this story is supposed to be about the boxer Jack Johnson, I suppose Lovecraft was salty about him beating white fighters and pawging. In this story a white man won the fight.*
The negro had been knocked out [in the boxing match], and a moment's examination shewed us that he would permanently remain so. He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life--but the world holds many ugly things.
Here is a letter.
Letter from Lovecraft to A.E.P. Gamwell, February 1925.
Of course they can’t let ******s use the beach at a Southern resort – can you imagine sensitive persons bathing near a pack of greasy chimpanzees? The only thing that makes life endurable where blacks abound is the Jim Crow principle, & I wish they’’d apply it in N.Y. both to ******s & to the more Asiatic type of puffy, rat-faced Jew. Either stow ‘em out of sight or kill ‘em off – anything so that a white man may walk along the streets without shuddering nausea.
He was obsessed.
Letter from Lovecraft to James F. Morton, January 1931
Now the trickiest catch in the negro problem is the fact that it is really twofold. The black is vastly inferior. There can be no question of this among contemporary and unsentimental biologists—eminent Europeans for whom the prejudice-problem does not exist. But, it is also a fact that there would be a very grave and very legitimate problem even if the negro were the white man’s equal. For the simple fact is, that two widely dissimilar races, whether equal or not, cannot peaceably coexist in the same territory until they are either uniformly mongrelised or cast in folkways of permanent and traditional personal aloofness. . . . . Just how the black and his tan penumbra can ultimately be adjusted to the American fabric, yet remains to be seen. . . . Millions of them would be perfectly content with servile status if good physical treatment and amusement could be assured them, and they may yet form a well-managed agricultural peasantry. The real problem is the quadroon and octoroon—and still lighter shades. Theirs is a sorry tragedy, but they will have to find a special place. What we can do is to discourage the increase of their numbers by placing the highest possible penalties on miscegenation, and arousing as much public sentiment as possible against lax customs and attitudes—especially in the inland South—at present favouring the melancholy and disgusting phenomenon. All told, I think the modern American is pretty well on his guard, at last, against racial and cultural mongrelism. There will be much deterioration, but the Nordic has a fighting chance of coming out on top in the end.
He also wrote on his hatred for Jews and Asians, but I didn't mention them since they aren't a large part of the demographic here. There are countless more examples found in stories (The Horror of Red Hook, The Shadow over Innsmouth, etc.) and letters, I urge you to research more if it interests you.
A lot of these ideas and beliefs are returning to the mainstream, do your research and be mindful of any sort of media you consume, even books are not exempt from this. Especially if you have children, however doubtful that they will read Lovecraft, ideas seep into stories and can wreck havoc on the subconscious.
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I'm almost never surprised.
I cant even remember the exact details, just that it left me a little unsettled and suspicious. I never did finish reading either as I instead googled his name along with racist, and found out about the N!gger poem. Its one thing to say thats how it was back then (still is), but his bias was more extreme than the norm. 