Now? Ok whatever, maybe it's changed.
12 years ago when I was on there? The racism was recurrent. It wasn't everywhere, but it was frequent enough and offputting enough to poison the space, and like I said, it's not a surprise how many prominent New Atheists ended up being reactionary shits. Christopher Hitchens supported the destruction of Iraq, Sam Harris is vile, Richard Dawkins is an asshole, and the people who venerate them without acknowledging (or perhaps because of) their reactionary bents are sus as hell.
Or maybe you're not as good at noticing it because you haven't been forced to become hypervigilant about it. Are you Muslim or from a Muslim family?