The 'victims of racism' argument is that we're collaborating in HPL's racism by being more concerned with whether or not he was typical of white men of the period than with the groups he trash-talked.

I attended a Lovecraft and racism panel at WHC once. Joshi said what Joshi always says ("man of his times," "never acted on it," "mellowed as he got older"). Another participant talked about how hard it was to teach HPL in school because of the racism and people nodded their heads sagely. To repurpose le Carré: "Nobody learned anything, nothing changed, the offal was cleared away by morning."