I would try to make the best of it. Be as pleasant as possible, and just ignore the bigots. You will never get completely away from bigots in your life, so you should not let it control where you go and what you do.
If a racist or ethnic remark or joke was made, I would ask my friend to take me home if I rode with them. If I brought my own car, I would say "I'm not comfortable here, so I'm going to leave. Thanks for inviiting me, I know you meant well." and I would be gone.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.