My understanding of Roosevelt is that he was not a racist, To be clear I don't see much point in making character judgements of people who lived generations in

My understanding of Roosevelt is that he was not a racist, To be clear I don't see much point in making character judgements of people who lived generations in the past, and in in circumstances radically different from our own. That said, it may be helpful to keep in mind some of the basic facts of Roosevelt's attitudes towards non-whites, as attested by these easily findable quotes: “As a race and in the mass they are altogether inferior to the whites,” he confided to a friend in a 1906 letter. Ten years later, he told Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that “the great majority of Negroes in the South are wholly unfit for the suffrage” and that giving them voting rights could “reduce parts of the South to the level of Haiti.” Roosevelt also believed that Black men made poor soldiers. He denigrated the efforts of the buffalo soldiers who fought alongside his men at San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, falsely claiming that they ran away under fire. “Negro troops were shirkers in their duties and would only go as far as they were led by white officers,” he wrote. In reality, the buffalo soldiers served with distinction, and several men were officially recognized for their bravery. Twenty-six died on the slopes of San Juan Hill. ... “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are,” Roosevelt said during a January 1886 speech in New York. “And I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act