When, long ago, the Gods created Earth,
In Jove's fair image Man was shap'd at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next design'd;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill this gap, and join the rest to man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Fill'd it with vice, and call'd the thing a N*GGER.
Please put something like this behind a spoiler or something; there are those of us who've had that word hurled enough in our daily life that it suddenly appearing while browsing social media is alarm-inducing.
My favorite way of explaining how racist he was is that his contemporaries over a century ago in the "Birth of a Nation" period of racism were like "Dude - tone down the racism."
If you are curious, you can read more about the man and find him nearly frightened by his own shadow, thus filled with hate and bias to the brim. His fragile antics are probably why he wrote a lot of foundational horror stories. Guy was clearly unwell in the head department, and although it gave us a lot of creative lit, all of it is stained with things he was himself afraid of.
And it's even worse than it being the name of his real cat- he also named a cat in one of his stories that. So anyone just reading his works can encounter it.
I am not a huge Lovecraft fan (despite reading more than I probably should have), but Cool Air is a rare short story I can find absolutely no fault with.