The author's probably like JK Rowling. It was likely that it was someone else's idea to race swap, but the author wont speak out against it because he doesn't want to be seen as racist.

But what im learning from this is that you can't expect much from authors that have "muh racism" and "muh discrimination" as themes in the story. One Piece has some of those anti discrimination themes just like Harry Potter but it isn't obnoxious about it so it usually gets a pass, but its still clear that the author is an idiot.