There is a difference between recognizing a periods limitations and idiosyncrasies to make a campaign more realistic and courting current controversy. Limitations that are indiscriminate like lack of penicillin or reliable communication generally don’t cause offense. They fall evenly and don’t lead to a genera feeling of grievance now.
On the other hand if you’re including racism in an rpg game I have to question why? IF these things act as a backdrop and they’re events you’re hearing about then I can see it being relevant to place the campaign in time. However is your character reacting to these events? Commenting on them as a citizen of those times would have commented? Or are they acting them out? Insisting the driver stops the bus because a black woman is sitting in the wrong seat... because that’s what their character would have done? It’s a minefield.
Now in the privacy of a person’s basement they can say what they like to who they like. However on a public forum I’m not interested in people justifying how they like acting out racist fantasies because it’s accurate. That included listening to the DM describe how they act them out to players who are pretending to oppressed. It’s not cool to get your Thursday night kicks acting out the scenario of three locals beating up a young man because he whistled at a woman. Even if the PC is that young man. It is deeply distasteful.
There is so much history that is fascinating and challenging, it mystifies me why people would want to act out the very worst elements of human nature. There are far more interesting tension... war vs peace, technology vs agriculture, urban vs rural, changes in transport, discovery, meeting new cultures (on an equal footing), history of law, history of medicine, development of archeology, development of anthropology, the age of sail, piracy, founding of democracy. Etc etc. I’m pretty sure leaning into 1900’s racism is fairly unnecessary for a historical game.
