I agree with you completely, and I think you would not be getting downvoted if the demographic of Hacker News readers was different. Being mentally ill doesn't mean that racist things you say aren't racist.
Second, none of the people who do this kind of flamewar have any substantial notion of the relationship between schizophrenia and socially taboo language. Nor is that a topic that can be discussed on an internet forum at all, since any knowledgeable comment would immediately be buried by angry ignorant ones.
It's mindless, and those of you abusing each other should be ashamed of yourselves.
BTW: My mother has been committed since I was 2 and is still going in and out of institutions. ( Im 35 )
In case it helps, the flags and moderation are not because you're outnumbered or because HN is full of racists or racist sympathizers. It's because this is a flamewar topic that rages in the same way every time it comes up and for some reason leads people into behaving extremely badly. This site has rules: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, and they are the way they are for good reason.
And it's because no matter how one feels or how right one is, it's impossible to have a principled discussion about racism in the context of a comic book feud about a schizophrenic homeless man whom people on the internet have been treating as their personal mascot for many years. The only sensible reaction to that is nausea and—if you're responsible for this site, as I am—shame.