How are minorities portrayed in books?

The treatment of minorities is a somewhat controversial issue, even now. Misogyny, 'gay bashings', and the Holocaust are all real-world, flesh-and-blood examples of how people have viewed others. One would think they would be a little more favorably portrayed in books; however, this isn't always the case. The portrayal of minorities tends to place them in unfavorable situations that focus more on their negative aspects, rather than highlighting the positive ones; in other words, they often receive an unfavorable portrayal.
One example of this is in the John Grisham novel The Brethren, which centers on three convicted judges extorting money from closet homosexuals. In several of these situations, outside help is called in to 'rescue' the extortion victims (mainly older, wealthy, white men). The extortion itself is despicable on many levels, but what bothers me is that these men cannot seem to get a grip. They all have experience in dealing with difficult issues (banking and politics, for example), and outmaneuvering opponents; the situation they have placed themselves in is rather similar to that. Their inability to extricate themselves makes them seem weaker than the straight men who are called on to help them, which is untrue. There is also a one-sided opinion on homosexuality throughout the book, provided by the homophobic justices running the scam. Other characters have a less obvious disdain of homosexuals, but no one steps up to protect them. Even though the book is set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when major support groups had not really appeared in the U.S., there was support for the LGBTQ community, and that could have been written in somewhere.
Sexual discrimination was one of the factors in the Holocaust; homosexual men, having failed to create 'Aryan offspring', were often castrated after being sent to concentration camps. SS officers who were thought to be gay were shipped to a camp where they were killed.
Another example of unfavorable treatment is misogyny, which appears many times in the books I read. Women tend to be viewed as lesser than men, a view which unfortunately persists in the literary world. In the Artemis Fowl series, Holly Short, one of the protagonists, is discriminated against because of her gender. She receives less desirable police assignments than the male officers do, and even when she finds her way out of impossible situations, confidence is not placed in her abilities. While Holly does tend to be a wild card, multiple comments have been made about how females shouldn't be in the police force- even when the screwups aren't her fault.
Misogyny and gender stereotypes are still a part of world culture, despite the advancements and accomplishments made by women. Men are viewed as more 'socially valued'  and competent than women; the gaps in wages remain. In African and Middle Eastern countries, men basically control everything their wives can do.
In conclusion, I found that minorities often receive unfavorable portrayals in books, similar to the real world.