Just a sideline here, but people write a lot about authors being imprisoned in their time. But even in their time, authors can learn and evolve their depictions. Dickens’ Fagin was a terrible stereotype of the “evil Jew,” but after some notice by members of society and the Jewish pressand a some thought and change of attitude, Dickens, I think obviously deliberately, wrote the character of Riah in Our Mutual Friend to counteract his other prominent Jewish character, as well as societal prejudices (and probably addressing Shakespeare’s earlier depiction of Shylock, as well.)
Full disclosure–never read any LIW, so I’m not commenting on her approach.
I will add to what JHS said about Huck Finn, though–that is a specifically anti-racist book, and the people who are racist overtly are idiots, while those who need to learn and rise above what they’d been taught, like Huck, do so (“All right, then, I’ll GO to hell”).
Objections to the book are because of the use of the N-word, which was the norm for the time and the characters, not for implicit or explicit condoned racism.