LEJ, that's my take on it. Richards lost control of his temper. It was anger, not hatred or racism, and his outburst appears to have shocked him severely. He used a racist word, but to call him a racist, we'd need more than one moment in time that occurred because he snapped when a couple of alleged jerks, allegedly behaving badly, sent him over the edge.

There are some who like things easy and thought-free. Every time you hear a word, it must mean exactly the same thing. Things don't work that way. I've heard 'nigger' used in every imaginable way. There are other clues that you need to tell what a person really means by it. Reasonably intelligent people try to be somewhat right before they make a judgement and not knee-jerk their way into one.

I remember an episode of the Chappelle Show where he played a blind white supremicist. Some young white guys were in a car next to the truck he was in, and they were playing loud rap music. He yells "NIGGER!" at them. All the white guys know is that a black guy just called them 'nigger'. As the truck with Chappelle in it drives away, the two white guys are reacting - something along the lines of, "Did he just call us 'nigger'!? -- SWEEEET!!!"