This is the best thread I have seen in quite a long while. And congratulations to Will Kaufman for his scholarship and his insightful analysis. As to the term "casual racist", I don't believe that is something relegated to the 20's and 30's. I saw plenty of it in the 50's and early 60's in the white neighborhoods I grew up in. It perfectly describes something I have been searching to describe for a long time. Otherwise decent folks, who would never treat someone poorly to their face regardless of race, but when they were around all white folks they blame everything on "the niggers". I have to admit that as a child I never got raceism. Although I do remember times when I repeated things that I had heard. But my Grandmother gave me a lesson at an early age that pretty well cemented the views I have now.

One thing that always shines through the various bio's and productions of Woody's works is that same childlike simplification of complex issues. He was so deeply affected by these extraordinary and traumatic events from his childhood, that it seemed to me that his adult self and child self were constantly in conflict with the accepted more's of the times. This, tied with an extraordinary ability to turn a phrase, tell a story, and color it with his view of what it should be, makes us the happy beneficiaries of his work.

Will, I hope to meet you one day, and hear your work. I am inspired reading your words and examining your take on this man.

All the best,

Mick