@AmyDudley
The point about words that are offensive nowadays is that they show attitude. Changing the word for Turmeric doesn't matter because turmeric is a noun with not connotations other than its straightforward meaning. A word which is a racist/ homophobic etc slur show the way people thought, the way that these attitudes were integrated so deeply in society that people used the words freely with no thought that they were offensive.
People from my ethnic background have been subjected to abusive terms for centuries. I have heard every one of them, my Father was abused on a daily basis growing up in the 1920's and 30's. I would find it offensive if a portrayal of my ethnic group in past times failed to include the type of abuse people were subjected to and the type of prejudicial attitudes that meant people were treated as a lower type of being or even as subhuman in some eras. We can't clean up history, these things happened to actual human beings, people went through their daily lives dealing with abuse, I want people to know about that. I want people to think about how wrong it was, I want them to understand that in days gone by people thought it was OK to treat people like this and because it was so ingrained in society, terrible atrocities were allowed to happen.
It is a totally different scenario from translating the word that was used to describe a vegetable or whatever so that people know what you mean. Because vegetables and spices have no history of being the victims of prejudice. If you change the words that were used out of bigotry you eradicate the experience of those who suffered from the bigotry. We need to know where we've been to understand where we need to go.
I do get where you're coming from (except the idea that it's all about progress from 'where we've been' to 'where we need to go' - because if that were true, how come people try to make texts more racist sometimes, as well as less racist?).
But I don't see how you can separate out 'inoffensive' words from offensive ones. Sure, the names of spices aren't offensive (though, FWIW, there is a huge association between colonisation and exploitation of black/Jewish peoples, and the spice trade, which possibly makes it a bit murky). But if you translate all your nice, non-offensive random words for spices or fruits or pieces of clothing, then you subconsciously put your reader into a mental space where they're hearing more-or-less modern English.
In that mental space, a racial slur that these days is shocking, is going to sound jarringly shocking - more shocking than if it were in context. So the whole texture of all of the language matters.
I don't advocate whitewashing attitudes we now find offensive, but I do think sometimes, people retain offensive terms for the shock value in a way I find a bit cheap.