This is my personal opinion only (removing my AL hat for this post)
As far as the Gur/Vistani being based on a real-world stereotype goes... Historically this is true, they were originally based on a historical stereotype of the Romani (they have since grown into their own distinct fiction, which has diverged from their stereotypical roots). However with that being said, it is very difficult to tell stories relating to Barovia and leave out the Vistani for PC reasons.....They are integral to the setting. Is racism wrong - you betcha, and as I said in the Vistani PCs thread and other threads on the subject, it is my intention to show up the fact that the bigots are plain wrong, and that bigotry itself is objectively evil (rather than subjectively so).
I will also be encouraging my DMs to refer to Vistani as the "travelers" and/or Vistani and to try not to use the word "gypsy" as it is a racial slur of a RW people (there are many other ways to represent the cultural racism toward Vistani without resorting to the word gypsy or any RW slurs) Likewise, I will be encouraging all of my DMs to not roleplay Vistani as one-dimensional stereotypes, and to instead inject some measure of dimension to each vistani (and by extension Gur) they encounter in an adventure. At minimum, each individual should have one or more traits/behaviors/attitudes/quirks/goals/etc which are atypical for their people.
In respect to the Rasia (sp) family
- They are flawed individuals - but they are still individuals. In addition, it is clearly indicated that they have valid reasons for their misguided actions - and those reasons SHOULD be brought to light at the soonest possibility. They should be made to appear desperate, and taking desperate actions. It is unfortunate that the background information paints them as trecherous, thieving, and - basically villains when (as I understand it), that is not the role they actually take in the adventure. Also, as Greg said above - the Rasai family are painted as flawed protagonists and allies who undergo considerable growth throughout the campaign. Land-basing the AL for how they are portrayed in their "prologue" adventure doesn't allow for any growth to occur.
I personally trust that the admins have the best interests of the program at heart, and while specific terminology and phrasing that may be received poorly may slip through their editing net, overall I trust that they know what they are doing and would never present the Gur/Vistani in such a light if there wasn't a valid story-based reason for doing so. I know they have worked incredibly hard to weave this tightly-focused story arc together, and there are just too many details that none of us have been given yet. This is especially true once you consider that the playtesters are only just now playtesting the first of the tier-2 adventures
Erasing historical references to racism only drives it deeper. It doesn't solve the issue
Finally, I have to agree with some of the points made in this thread. Portraying Gur/Vistani as flawless and removing all trace of their former stereotypes does nothing to solve the problem of racism. In some ways it can be interpreted as a form of racism itself - as you are still refusing to allow them to be individuals, and are keeping the culture/identity segregated from the rest of the population as some "other" group. Inclusivity (not just integration) is required in order to address this problem head on.
Eliminating all traces of racism out of a sense of political correctness only serves to make the problem invisible. It doesn't address the underlying causes that lead to the intolerance and stereotypes in the first place. Just because you can no longer see racism, doesn't mean that it vanishes...
No, the only way to remove such attitudes (both in real life and at the game table) is to treat people as individuals IRL, and to portray fictional characters (of all ethnicities/races/etc) as having the full range of human virtues and failings and be represented as being distinct individuals with a shared, yet insular cultural ethnicity/identity. Only when we stop presenting characters (in general) as one-dimensional stereotypes will the issues start to resolve themselves.
Part of that work falls to the DM to breathe life into the NPCs and make them their own, as there is only so much information that can be written about any given character before it becomes information overload, and starts to overwhelm the DM. As such, fleshing out each character so that they are more than a stereotype, and leap from the page as a fully-realized character has (and always will be) the DMs job.
In cases of cultural sensitivity such as with the Gur/Vistani - this job is doubly as important, as only by showing people that each NPC is an individual in their own right will we slowly but surely take steps toward removing racism within our cultures, and at the game table. Healing the issues of racism (both fictitious and real) starts with the Individual. It always has.