"May or may not be a racist?" That's a bit like saying that, if it had been a Jewish heckler and he'd come back with stuff about "Sixty years ago you'd, have been in a gas chamber", perhaps it'd suggest that the man might possibly have an anti-semite inside him.

The question isn't whether Richards has got a racist inside him, it's whether he's more of a racist than a whole bunch of other people who go round preening themselves on not being racist, and maybe drop hints every now and again about how black people should really get over worrying about race, because it's all done and dusted.

I suppose there are three types of racists - the out and out ones who take prode in it, the ones who conceal it from other people, and the ones who conceal it from themselves, and don't like it when they becomes aware of it.