“Like many white intellectuals, Whitman seems to have been seduced by the proliferation of racist pseudo-science in the post-Civil War era, … [and his] racism was not limited to black people, but also extended to Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.” So should we put Whitman’s writing back on the shelf? Lavelle Porter argues that “there is no better place to look for nuanced critical engagement with Whitman’s complicated legacy than in the work of black intellectuals who have talked back to Whitman.” – JSTOR Daily