People bash the electoral college because it has ties to slavery

Not exactly. The slavery thing had to do with the census and giving more representatives to states with slaves, where slaves would not be allowed to vote. That's why the compromise came about. To prevent slave states from stacking Congress.

How the electoral college works.
First, imagine the States as independent Sovereign States. In fact, that's why it is called the 'State Department', it deals with Sovereign States.

Second, imagine that each of the people living in each of these Sovereign States are citizens of just that State. Easy enough. Most people have a strong attachment to the state they live in or were born in. It is also why you have a State driver's license and not a Federal one.

Third, understand that each State gets representation to vote for the President of the United States. <--- key wording here. Citizens of the individual States do not vote for the President. They vote for the representatives who will vote for the President.

That is the point of the electoral college.
States with larger populations have more electoral votes.
What this prevents is the popular vote of the more populated areas out weighing the votes in the less populated areas.

If you feel like your vote doesn't count because you live in a blue district in a red state, how would you feel if you lived in state that had a smaller population than certain cities?

There are easy examples to show where the popular vote goes wrong. In Michigan, until about a decade ago, the state was run by representatives from the Detroit area. That was the most populated area of the state. The western and northern portions of the state had almost zero voice in state matters. When Detroit imploded due to 60 years of bad Democrat policies, people fled and the power was spread across the state.
In Illinois and New York, there is the same issue. One city sending all the representatives who outweigh the rest of the state.