Faulkner and race in Light in August

More than half-way through William Faulkner's 1932 novel, Light in August, surely one of his greatest if not the greatest of his novels, with its clever and intricate plot, its vividly drawn characters, its intelligent use of back story and flashback, and for the most part WF's hypnotic language, which admittedly is sometimes over the top and even obscure (though not nearly so much as it some of his later novels, when the neologisms and complex sentences, I should talk, make some of his later works mannered and impenetrable). I know there have been literally countless books, papers, and dissertations about Faulkner and race; it's hard to imagine taking on this topic w/out analysis of LiA. I've been thinking about race throughout my reading of this novel, and find it still a puzzling and troubled topic in WF's hands. No doubt that he is deeply sympathetic to the rural black population of his Mississippi domain and that he feels the need for exculpation regarding the history of slavery; the main character in this novel, Joe Christmas, is of ambiguous and uncertain race, so he becomes something of a template for the various attitudes toward race, depending in part on whether he's "passing" as white or identified as black. He is among the most sorrowful characters in literature; what chance did he have, raised in an orphanage, taunted for his darkness, eventually adopted by a cruel "religious" family, beaten into submission, making stupid decisions about his fate and fortune. His life changes when he begins a sexual relationship with Miss Burden, a wealthy woman of New England background devoting her life to the "betterment" of southern blacks - so what does it mean that she engages Xmas in rough and brutal and sex? Her condescension toward Xmas and his violent response, though perhaps not "representative" of anyone but themselves, does suggest a certain contempt for would-be reformists and a distrust of rural blacks as brutal and dangerous. There's a sense throughout that, though blacks need and deserve better treatment and opportunity, that the races are best off in separation. Yes, it's easy to look back and criticize WF, or any writer, for not being ahead of his (or her) time, but I can't help but feel that black readers today would find this novel hurtful.