A fine interview, mjp. You set them straight. This part is dead on:
"I don't see him as a bigot because he was not intolerant on those levels. He was intolerant of people as humans, but not because of their sexual leanings or race. This is a sticky subject to sort out, again, because of when he was born. It is difficult for us to understand how many prejudices were taken for granted in the early part of the twentieth century. Most people didn't question these things until the civil rights movement in the 60's. Not to dismiss prejudice, but it is important to put it in context. I'm sure many of us have parents or grandparents who say things that make us cringe. They are not necessarily intolerant, they just came from an ignorant generation."
I'm old enough to have seen this first hand. When I was a kid, it was perfectly normal for whites to ridicule, dismiss, distain, and insult minorities. It was almost never questioned by anyone. Otherwise good, kind, loving, generous, decent and fair people used the "n word", and worse. It happened because nobody gave it a second thought. In the 60s, young people turned away from this kind of prejudice, but most older people held onto it, although they may have been more discreet about expressing it. Bukowski's "racist" statements are far more liberal than stuff I heard every day as a kid.