My group can't get past how "racist" the elves from the Tindailin quest are to (seemingly) care about any of said quest other than money. Please advise.
It started with The Hobbit treasure hunter sneaking up on the elven camp, like she didn't want to be spotted, and being caught by Brethil the scout.
It led to Brethil and Sulrien being willing to lead the elf party members into the forest, but being wary of inviting men and especially the Hobbit.
This led to The Hobbit going into a massive rant about racism. Which led to Randur apologizing on Brethil and Sulrein's behalf. Which led to him submitting to the whole party's demand to loot the entire grove for all its worth, with the exception of the Heart of Tindailin, in recompense for this insult.
This led to Randur later noticing the party's gifts from Galadriel and further apologizing on Sulrein and Brethil's behalf, and saying he's even MORE happy they came to his aid, which lead to both The Hobbit and one of the men in the party asking "Oh so now we have Elven gifts we see more legitimate in your eyes? I suggest you stop being so racist and just look outside your own confirmation bias and racial echo chamber".
So we now have all three elves considered, it seems, irredeemable, another man in the group who looked through Thalions diary and actively ignored everything apart from "oooh, maps to grab!", them actively getting bored from the mystery and "elf B.S." and a big question mark if whether the group will even uphold the promise of handing over the Heart of Tindailin.
This is not intended to be a rant of "why aren't the players doing what I want" or "why aren't they caring about the story I'm crafting". I just wonder what's gone so wrong that my flawed elf npcs are just viewed as the KKK, and I'm worried that my players are slipping into bad habits of being "dice gremlins" when I mentioned at the outset that this game is about being at least more heroic than usual. I'm also not happy with two back-to-back sessions being about modern day identity politics, Nor am I happy that in the lead-up The Meeting with Herunen and no one will actually care about About him or Thalion or Mirwen or anything other than themselves.
I'm also not entirely sure that the party will be accepting of the consequences of looting and bullying, And Be ready with a laundry list of excuses ("I'm a curious Treasure hunting Took, of course way I'm gonna act like this").