Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
First, I am not trying to suggest the book is free of prejudice, that would be silly. But nor is the book exclusively black is bad, white is good. In part, Tarzan's animal heritage muddies the perspective, with references back to the animal kingdom he grew up in, and to good apes like Kala or bad apes like Terkoz, but it goes further than that...
The context for this quote are the cannibals, but we don't know that yet, moving into Tarzan's domain. But note that the description does not distinguish one sort of man from another when equating man to a pestilence.
When Tarzan first meets white men there are many descriptions of the sailors as evil and villainous - and worse: they are cowardly. (Cowards get a pretty bad rap in this story.)
Then there is an odd scene as D'Arnot and Tarzan come out of the jungle. Tarzan had apparently come to equate "black men" and cannibals, but D'Arnot gives Tarzan a new perspective: And, of course, they turn out to be (relatively) friendly.
Then there is Robert Canler forcing himself on Jane, and who later shows himself to be a coward. The text deliberately brings Terkoz to mind during the confrontation, essentially equating the behaviour of Canler with that ape.
A great many quotes could be given to demonstrate prejudice exists in the text, but I think the points above demonstrate it is not entirely one sided. For the most part I see the attitudes as no worse that I would expect of heroic fiction of that era.
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I don't necessarily disagree with anything you've said and documented, but what it comes down to is that white people are either good or bad, largely based on social status (Canler is an exception), while black people are either bad or ignorant (Black Michael might be an exception). (I don't remember the specifics of the noncannibalistic tribe.)
On a par with other fiction from that era? I don't know. The books I've read from the early 20th century seem to either ignore black people entirely or include a jolly black household servant akin to Esmeralda.