Are you suggesting that Howard thought of himself as
non-white (and identified himself and his Celtic
heroes with non-whites) until 1921?
Gary,
Well...Mark himself will have to answer the question about what he was "suggesting" but my reading of his post is that you are missing the point bigtime by a constant desire to see Howard's feelings on race in the light and context of certain modern academics, rather than in the light of his own time. When you say that he fails in comparison to his contemporaries, you fail to cite any examples or valid comparisons...at least that I've seen so far.
So, help me out, how does he stack up against say.....H. L. Mencken? Franklin D. Roosevelt (who, unlike cousin Theodore, never had any minority folks to dinner)? Tom Watson? those of his contemporaries who made the KKK such a resurgent force in the 1920's? I think that he didn't fare nearly as badly as most of his contemporaries.Also, I believe REH needs to be viewed with the understanding that only a small segment of Americana (academic elites, for the most part) see "RACE" as such a monolithic either or proposition....that most folks didn't then, and don't now. I just finished reading a biography or Al Smith, which makes a good case (I'm not totally convinced, but food for thought) that he lost in 1928 because a lot of Americans saw his Catholic, Irish self as pretty close to "non-white".....good question here....did REH express any views on the 1928 presidential race? will have to check.....
Certainly, I would think REH was more tribal than racial...which puts him squarely in with how most of the world STILL sees themselves, with the exception of a few US college professors......
but that's just my opinion, let's see what Mark has to say....
Steven Harbin
