So I've been reading the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, and they're fun. Rollicking adventure stories with expertly described action scenes and fantastic world building. But the thing that sticks in my craw about his writing, and which prevents me from recommending it to people who aren't into the historical side of SFF, is that it's steeped in not just racism, but pseudo-scientific racialism.
Howard firmly believed that there are simply Different Kinds Of Humans based on perceived racial phenotypes, that every individual can be prejudged by their race because it informs their basic character, and that the "white race" was superior to all others. In his view, there may be bad people who are white, but they're not bad because they're white; conversely, non-whites aren't always evil, but their evil traits are due specifically to their non-whiteness. And all of them lust uncontrollably after white women.
And frankly this is all exactly what I expect from a white nerd living in Texas in the 1930s. He had brief moments when he rose above his upbringing, like occasionally letting female characters be badass and taking a firm stance against dictatorship, but he never really changed.
It's just disappointing.