*sigh* This again. I’m so tired. The “all people from the 40’s had to have been racist” argument falls apart when you consider the fact that two of the reigning kings of using fiction/pop culture to fight for equality, re: Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek) and Jack Kirby (co-creator of Cap, the original X-Men, and Black Panther) were both from the 40’s. In fact what do these two men have in common other than the themes in their body of work? They both served in WW2.
BTW Mr. (Fred) Rogers was also “from the 40’s”. Just saying.
Moreover Cap was not created to be an accurate portrayal of life in the 40’s. Simon and Kirby based him on the Golem of Prague mythology. The A on Cap’s helmet? In Hebrew it is the letter א, which represents “truth”. In the golem of Prague mythology that activated the golem. Steve’s origin is also reminiscent of the golem of Prague story. The golem was molded from raw material (a young, frail Steve Rogers) but through magic (the super soldier serum) became a strong and formidable defender of the Jewish community. The golem had a star on his chest, just like Cap does. There are other parallels as well. Thus Steve was never meant to be this modern day representative of the Greatest Generation, that was never his creators’ intent. He was always meant to be a champion brought to life for the explicit reason of defending the marginalized.
More on that here:
https://blog.nli.org.il/en/captain_america/