Of course they were, everything is still racist, right? I don't know a single democrat that doesn't call people by their race, I don't don't know a single Republican who emphasizes a person's race. Recognizing nationality is not racism.
So Darwin was one of those racist scientists. His science was so flawed. He went on one journey around the globe and made his hypothesis, and never extended his research to test his theories. He was a sucker for the Malthusian catastrophe, and all the fashionable blather of the day, none of which has stood the test of time. Einstein's Theory of Relativity has been successfully demonstrated by several labs and still remains a theory, but is not a law of physics yet. Absolutely none of Darwin's theories have been proven. If he had called it a theory of adaptation he would have been successful. They proved the birds he claimed evolved unique beaks merely adapted to lack of food due to drought. The Leakys dug up some chimpanzee skeletons, rearranged the configuration and claimed to have found the first humans. So funny the family still doesn't allow anyone else to examine their finds. Nebraska man was just a prehistoric pig jawbone. Nothing worse than racist liars acting like scientists..