It's true that he was a racist, but there was a great deal of nuance in his views. He was an anglophile and his prejudice basically encompassed everyone who wasn't English or descended from.

I've began reading him when I was 17 and the cat's name in Rats in the walls seemed like a normal name for a cat in those days, also because (one g) niger means black in Latin.

What I recall most from his

his prejudice basically encompassed everyone who wasn't English or descended from

is his description of a dutch sailor in the horror at red hook. The descriptions of (in hind-sight black people) I took more as not-quite human creatures like the (semi)fish people in Innsmouth.

I only found out when I was I guess 23 orso, long after reading all his works, from a documentary about him that it was racist. When I was a bit older I visited scotland one time, and witnessed a military tattoo in Edinburgh and then I saw where he got his bulging fish-eyed people from, elderly Scottish people have those eyes and they are smaller (certainly also for HP himself) and chubby. They only need a fishy skin and BOOM you're in Innsmouth.

What I really liked about his writing was his usage of words I didn't know and had to look up, but that was a hassle so after looking up a few I tried to guess the meaning and mostly they were close-enough (when I looked them up after finishing a story) because the context of the words and the sounding would fit perfectly.

Eldritch is such a word and my favorite, when Lovecraft uses it it's something epic that 'weird' nor 'eerie' can conjure up.