I actually think the stories would be stronger without the racial elements, because a common theme in many of the stories I’ve read so far (bearing in mind I’ve only read about 25% so far) has been the discovery of something hideous and bestial within the human. I’ve actually not interpreted the horror as being exclusively about race, because Lovecraft assumes all characters are white unless explicitly stated otherwise (as most authors do), and ghastly heritage is not reserved only for the non-white characters. I suppose one could argue that it’s intended to be a metaphor for discovering that one’s “bloodline” isn’t as pure as they believe (I wonder if Lovecraft had, or feared he had, non-white ancestors?), and that’s where the racial horror comes into it.
The interesting thing is that so many of the stories I’ve read so far don’t even mention race (except in passing), which makes racism stand out even more in the stories it suddenly appears in. The “what if we aren’t who we think we are?” and “what knowledge would drive us mad if we learned it?” themes stand just fine on their own in the stories where race isn’t mentioned; and these themes would be maintained if the racist slurs were edited out of other stories. Lovecraft’s horror is cosmic and existential, and is more so when presented as racially neutral, because it leaves all humans equally powerless in the face of the unnameable.
shrugs That’s just my interpretation, anyway, which is of course 100% subjective. I may change my mind when I get to Lovecraft’s later works. The dude is absolutely an awful racist, and my experience with bigots is they become more extreme, and less cautious about hiding their hatred, as time goes on. So we’ll see. But as it stands, the stories I’ve read so far would not change significantly if the racism was removed, and they’d be better reads without that enormous distraction.