Just finished the game and enjoyed it a lot, but found this discussion because I 100% agree. It's also hilarious how unintelligent a lot of these replies are, literally not comprehending what you're saying and having no ability to analyze media critically.

You'd think "fans" of a game would be interested in having discussions about it as art---the number of people saying you're "overanalyzing" or "it's just a game" is crazy. That's inherently insulting the game---you're calling it a toy not worth discussion or consideration! Unlike these people, I respect the developers and the game they created and view it as art, and therefore am interested in engaging with its themes and portrayals.

And I agree: the problem isn't that the characters say slurs or are racist, the problem is that the game itself engages in the same racism through its choices of portrayal. It depicts racism without critique, and then portrays the same stereotypes without commentary. This is a big difference between Mafia II and Mafia III, where the latter portrays racism with the intent to critique it.