Il y avait des racistes.

Means there was racists, suggesting somehow there are no racists anymore today. If you add “toujours” it means there was racists whatever the time period we look at, but not today. That’s not what the English sentence means.

In English you are using the present perfect, not the preterit. It should ring a bell when translating it: most of the time present perfect is best translated into passé composé.