There IS reason for the racism in The Witcher, but getting a greater understanding of the context behind it requires either some deep-diving into the lore and in-game literature, playing the previous games, and/or reading the books. In short, racial tensions always existed between elves and humans that resulted in a lot of bloody battles in the past, with the results being the former losing an entire generation of fertile youths (elves live longer than humans, but have a considerably shorter fertility window) that left their population in sharp decline and made way for the fall of their civilization. Those hostilities have still left marks on both people, and many elves refuse to integrate with their human conquerers but also lack the basic agricultural skills needed to form their own communes, so they act as thieves and brigands, which in turn drives humans to be more hostile to them in turn.
As for Dwarves, well, many of the biggest banks in the Northern Kingdoms are owned and run by them, Vivaldi being the most notable. Take that for what it's worth.
Furthermore, five years before the first game began, when Nilfgaard launched a second invasion on the north, it commissioned and made high promises to disenfranchised nonhumans to spur them into assisting the empire, leading to the formation of the Scoia'tael which engaged in guerilla warfare all across the North. And even after the war ended and Nilfgaard left them high and dry, the Scoia'tael is still active and still engaging in banditry and other mischief (which we openly see in the first two Witcher games), which is doing nothing for race relations, and in turn makes humans suspicious of their nonhuman neighbors. Said suspicion is also not always unwarranted because a lot of said neighbors are in fact Scoia'tael sleeper agents. And by the time Witcher 3 begins, Nilfgaard is launching a third invasion, which is doing much to drive up more racial paranoia; they're not employing the Scoia'tael anymore, but the common (and ignorant) man doesn't know that, and considering the Scoia'tael recently partook in a number of actions that further weakened the north, like assist an assassin in killing King Foltest, and taking advantage of the unrest in Aedirn to form a new independent nation in it, well...
At least she probably can't reach back through time and take my Witcher 1 through 3 playthrough memories away from me.
There IS reason for the racism in The Witcher, but getting a greater understanding of the context behind it requires either some deep-diving into the lore and in-game literature, playing the previous games, and/or reading the books. In short, racial tensions always existed between elves and humans that resulted in a lot of bloody battles in the past, with the results being the former losing an entire generation of fertile youths (elves live longer than humans, but have a considerably shorter fertility window) that left their population in sharp decline and made way for the fall of their civilization. Those hostilities have still left marks on both people, and many elves refuse to integrate with their human conquerers but also lack the basic agricultural skills needed to form their own communes, so they act as thieves and brigands, which in turn drives humans to be more hostile to them in turn.
As for Dwarves, well, many of the biggest banks in the Northern Kingdoms are owned and run by them, Vivaldi being the most notable. Take that for what it's worth.
Furthermore, five years before the first game began, when Nilfgaard launched a second invasion on the north, it commissioned and made high promises to disenfranchised nonhumans to spur them into assisting the empire, leading to the formation of the Scoia'tael which engaged in guerilla warfare all across the North. And even after the war ended and Nilfgaard left them high and dry, the Scoia'tael is still active and still engaging in banditry and other mischief (which we openly see in the first two Witcher games), which is doing nothing for race relations, and in turn makes humans suspicious of their nonhuman neighbors. Said suspicion is also not always unwarranted because a lot of said neighbors are in fact Scoia'tael sleeper agents. And by the time Witcher 3 begins, Nilfgaard is launching a third invasion, which is doing much to drive up more racial paranoia; they're not employing the Scoia'tael anymore, but the common (and ignorant) man doesn't know that, and considering the Scoia'tael recently partook in a number of actions that further weakened the north, like assist an assassin in killing King Foltest, and taking advantage of the unrest in Aedirn to form a new independent nation in it, well...