Sure, the concept of wild raging barbarians can represent the European tribes like Vikings, but the same tropes used to describe them were used to describe the Huns, or "headhunter" tribes of Africa, or Native Americans in the old West. "The natives are restless tonight." Isn't just describing the Visigoths!
That said, you may be right, it's a mountain out of a molehill. I'd would have said the same thing about orcs until two months ago. Then a lot of digital ink got poured on race, always evil monsters, OA, etc. It didn't take very long to go from praise of the PHB's inclusive artwork and stance on gender to people criticizing it as perpetuating racist/sexist/ableist tropes and calling for boycotts on future products.
The world is changing faster than most thought possible, and media is being held to account for it's role in the old regime. It's happening in music, movies, tv, comics, novels, and video games, and it is happening in table top games as well. The question is if we are going to be proactive and look for the problems or reactive and keep changing things only when the outcry is deafening?
