Richards doesn't have to be racist to say what he said. Standup is all he has left and he's being bothered over and over and trying to dodge it with comedy isn't working while at the same time he's allegedly called a cracker by the guy beforehand. He simply burst and wanted to piss the guy off where it hurts, which would be through his race. Is that racist? No...
I disagree. Richards could just as well have called the heckler an ignorant asshole but he instead chose to attack the heckler on the basis of his skin color. Thats a racist remark.
(Don't get me wrong - the heckler started it by calling Richards a racial epithet and he's no better than Richards, BUT Richards has to own up to his reply to the heckler).
Of course he will take responsibility for lowering himself to that level. However you don't see him coming out saying "I snort cocaine and will enter rehab." His apology seems completely honest and true. When faced with intense anger one will usually go with the most damaging retort. It's natural human instinct. But you have people like Sharpton coming out saying "I will not accept his apology."
If Richards called him an ignorant asshole it wouldn't have gotten any better for him, he'd just continue building up anger when the man started laughing at that. What pisses me off is that sarcastically calling someone a ni--er(.*?) is seen as a genocidal act while no one really cares that someone else is called a cracker-ass white boy. I'm not saying Richards' move into that dark humor was right, but I don't think he should be the only one looked down at here. I also love how some patrons lied on the news about Richards' comments.
