Every time I hear “they were a product of their time,” to justify racism, I think to this piece by Barbarity vs Civilisation by René Georges Hermann-Paul. Clearly “the time” (1899) had anti-racist sentiment, too. “The era” is no excuse.

people thought christopher columbus was a bloodthirsty psychopath

Those who promote and elevate racist and bigoted views from those in the past have chosen to elevate those voices above others from the same period who were critical.

Samuel "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" Johnson left his library and the bulk of his estate to his friend and former valet, the Black freedman Francis Barber. Johnson died in 1784. There were *always* people whose consciences were shocked.

Me recuerda a la iglesia " Es que mirais los abusos a los niños con ojos de la epoca actual" Debe ser que la pedofilia antes fue civilizaciòn.

The way i've always figured it, it can sometimes be a /mitigating/ factor, but never an /absolving/ one. A lot of people seem to treat the first as the second though.