itation. Later in the book she does admit that Pudd’nhead Wilson, the book she’s critiquing, is "anti-racist" abet with problems because Twain used racist terminology (Gunning 52). Gunning does include mention that in 1901 Twain wrote The United States of Lyncherdom, wherein he called lynching "this epidemic of bloody inanities (Gunning 52)." The United States of Lyncherdom was Twain’s mouthpiece to vent his frustration with the state of humanity. He scribed that the "right hearted and compassionate . . . would attend [a lynching], and let on be pleased with it, if public approval seemed to require it (Budd, Tales 482)." Twain remarked that "each man is afraid of his neighbors disapproval [which is] more dreaded than wounds and death (Budd Tales, 482)." Our modern concerns of public apathy was alive and well in 1901. History repeating itself is an oxymoron because people have been saying it for so very long. Unfortunately the only suggestion given by Twain on how to fix the sorry state of affairs was to bring back our missionaries from China because "nothing but the martyr spirit can brave a lynching mob (Budd, Tales 485)." Twain wrote some seemingly racist comments about the Goshoot Indians in Roughing It. "From what could see and all we could learn, they are very considerably inferior to even the despised Digger Indians of California; inferior to all races of savages on our continent (Hill 166)." This statement makes Twain out to be racist if it implied that some races are superior or inferior to others. Twain did write that the first murder he witnesses in ‘Indian country’ is perpetrated by white outlaws and he makes fun of the exaggeration of people injured in an Indian attack (Hill 97-102). There is more solace in the realization that the chapter seems intended more to attack James Fenimore Cooper and his romantic image of the "Noble Red Man" than to attack Natives rights or support white supremacy. Tw...
