It's not actually racist at all, if you read it. The stereotypes Stowe uses to portray her black characters are fleshed out into fully realistic characters—for example, Topsy, the wild girl who seems to have very few real emotions, is shown to be actually a youngster who never had parents, nor anyone to love her, and as a result put up a cheerful-and-impudent act to protect herself. Topsy's outward appearance is a stereotype; her history and personality are not. Other stereotypes are similarly used. It's as though she's saying, "Well, even if they really DID act like that—think about what it must be like to walk in their shoes." It works quite well.
In addition, Uncle Tom's Cabin has gained an undeserved reputation as prejudiced not because of the book itself but because of how it was later adopted and used in Tom shows—minstrel shows, plays, almost invariably with extreme character derailment, with characters reverting back to stereotype and Tom himself turned weak and fawning rather than strong, calm, and altruistic as he was portrayed in the book. The anti-slavery message of the book was lost or even inverted in many of these adaptations.
I think perhaps some of what people have problems with in the character of Tom is that he sees his white masters as absolute equals and fellow human beings. What I mean by that is not that they are annoyed that Tom doesn't feel inferior; but that they are annoyed that Tom doesn't feel superior. It is very easy to feel superior to someone like Legree, after all, and you'd think he's justified. But that's not Tom's philosophy; his character conveys a very strong message of everyone being equal under God, whether they are white or black, cruel or kind, young or old, male or female.
I'm not a minority race in my country; but I'm disabled, and what I've learned about minorities comes from that. When a group of people has been told that they are inferior—that someone must always be inferior—they will rightly declare that they are not inferior, but will often overlook that it's possible to simply declare equality rather than having a war about who is going to be on top. I think a character like Tom triggers this reaction in people who have not yet begun to understand that nobody has to be superior at all.
Instead of freaking out about how "racist" Uncle Tom's Cabin is, I wish people would try to grasp just how different racial attitudes were back then. The book is racist by our standards, but by 1850s' standards it was positively groundbreaking. Keep in mind, black people in literature were portrayed then either as devoted servants or cheap comic relief; black people were never heros or romantic leads.
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