RoboChrist 9000 posted:

Howard was undoubtedly a racist, but I think he was fairly progressive for the time. Schwarzwald put it pretty well, and yeah, you can see in the Conan stories a lot of racism, but it does seem of a different sort of racism to what was prominent then - and now. I have no doubt that Howard believed in the innate superiority of the white man, but I also don't think he held non-whites in contempt or even necessarily in pity/disdain.
His views are more complex and interesting to discuss than Lovecraft's, who was - as noted - a virulent piece of poo poo even by the standards of the time. Lovecraft absolutely hated blacks and found them repugnant savages, while I'm not entirely sure what to say Howard felt of them.

I've never really read any of the non-Howard Conan stuff; how do they handle some of the racialist/racist themes of the setting? I always found Stygia one of the more egregious offenders since not only is it an Egypt of white people - something not that uncommon even today for Hollywood and pop culture - but an Egypt ruled by white people with an explicit underclass of black and brown peasants.