I couldn't agree more, far too often incidents like this are seized upon by people on the political margins of the left to score points and drum up support from what they consider to be oppressed people.
Everyday people lash out with verbal abuse at something or another, normally they regret it and apologise later which is what Richards has done. It should be left at that and then forgotten.
Why can't this incident just be seen for what it really is and buried??
"It should be left at that and then forgotten."
"Why can't this incident just be seen for what it really is and buried??"
Because it is in the best interests of the liberal media (i.e. Democrat media) and race hustlers, such as Jesse and Al, need to keep blacks solidly in the victim class. That is why black racism, as in this incident, is always excused as "playful" or "innocent", or ignored entirely and forgotten. And the rare incident of open white racism, again as in this incident, is reported repeatedly for weeks, months, if not years after.
I'm gonna' go with Kenny Kramer on this ("The Real Kramer"), mainly because he offered the most thoughtful explanation about what happened and because he's known Richards for almost two decades.
Basically, Richards is not a standup comic, he's more of a performance comic. So when he started with the hecklers he was already above his head, out of his league. He may have thought he was using "tools" appropriate to a comic versus hecklers in an LA comedy club, buy he crossed the line somewhere.
Given the material and language that's regularly used on late-night Comedy Central and HBO's comedy channel (including use of the "n word" by both black and white comics), I'd have to give Kramer's explanation some credence.