If I had to guess that is probably because he didn’t agree with their economic policy, not their social policy.

He penned a poem called “The White Man’s Burden” that literally calls non-whites, and I quote: “half devil and half child.” Hitler very well may have looked upon other races in a better light than Kipling, except maybe the Jews, but at the same time the actions of Jews were responsible for Hitler’s view of them so you can hardly blame him from learning from experience.

Kipling was well-traveled and fully aware of the good will in the hearts of people from around the world. He also understood the world in which he lived, one where suspicion and stereotypes existed from all sides. This is not autobiographical. He is creating a fictional persona that represents all men and their xenophobia. “My father’s belief” shows that these feelings are cultural and generational.

The truth is, for all his modern trappings, man is still fundamentally tribal in nature. We are still prone to congregating with those much like ourselves. Despite our public embrace of “the melting pot” or “multiculturism,” privately we’re prone, perhaps even evolutionarily predisposed to hanging out with those most like ourselves. Trevor Phillips, head of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, noted even in his childhood that London’s neighborhoods were largely black, Indian, Irish, Jewish, etc. It’s predictable and natural that we do this. A century earlier Kipling knew this too.