Whatever "racism/racist" means, I'd like to suggest that it's
impossible for any individual to avoid picking up and internalizing
racist concepts and attitudes when living in a racist culture.  They
permeate the language, the social and economic structure, and every
facet of human interactions, in complex and often cryptic and even
contradictory ways.   So saying that MT, or I, or you, has racist
attitudes and expresses them one way or another is not surprising.
It's what we do about it that matters: acknowledging their presence
and trying to understand and evaluate and eliminate them - and I'd
say that MT was an exemplary thinker in those regards, even if he
never completely surmounted some of the prejudices of his time and
situation.  Who of us ever has?  (I wonder if his white suit was, in
part, an ironic self-commentary on the not-so-pure person within!)

Ben
Keene State College
Keene, NH