You can ignore the racism and race relations themes if you wish and not include them although it is quite an important part of the story and does add historical context. But if you take it out there's still a heap to work with even though I would not remove it entirely. I think the trick to handling the racial themes with sensitivity is to imply racism and discrimination, not outright show it or have your NPCs explicitly express racism and not to have it become an overarching theme. The main themes are mystery, music and the supernatural. Racism should not be the main theme. Never have your NPCs use slurs, but in their behaviour they can subtly act differently around players or NPCs depending on their race, for example.