The main basis for the judgement of any criminal are his actions, and not on whether he was born with a "crime" gene or not.And the actions are all there is, that's known to others to judge you upon.So if someone opines that Lehmann is racist because he uttered those words then its his opinion..... just like your opinion that he isn't....no more, no less.
Not at all. There is objective criteria present for what defines a true racist and under most definitions, Lehmann wouldn't fit the profile. I mean, how would you be able to call anyone a racist if there were no people who'd come before, looked at it objectively and decided upon criteria by which to at least try to objectively judge someone's actions/words? For example, I look upon the September 11th hijackers as murderers. Under most objective criteria, this is the case yet there are those who will tell you they are freedom fighters, in their opinion. Now if I were to show them the objective criteria which defines a murderer (premeditated act, result is someone dead etc.) and they upheld the opinion that they aren't murderers, just how valid would their opinion be? I could tell you that the sky is turquoise until I was blue in the face, despite all the objective evidence to the contrary; would that make my opinion remain just as valid as those who would argue that the sky is actually blue?
So no, I reject the assertion that someone who calls Lehmann a racist based upon one thing he has uttered has just as valid in an opinion as anyone who says different. As I've demonstrated above, there ARE invalid or wrong opinions occasionally. Not all opinions are equally valid. And if the objective criteria usually defined as that which typifies a racist is applied to Lehmann, again you'd see he doesn't fit the profile of someone who is a 'racist'.
If anything, if that criteria is rejected and no-one needs to provide proof for any opinion they hold AND those opinions, regardless of how improbable, are all equally, then by definition they are all objectively invalid. If all opinions were entirely subjectively and no more wrong than each other, then you could claim Lehmann is a racist and I could claim him to be an alien and neither of us would be provably wrong................mind, neither of us would be provably right either.
So in conclusion, Lehmann certainly did utter a racist slur. Of that there is no doubt. But to then use that (not you personally but others who do judge him unfairly) as your sole criteria for deeming him a 'racist', well you're on shaky ground.
If satisfying one piece of criteria for something made you automatically that, well you could convincingly state that any person who has kissed one of the same gender must automatically be homosexual, the rest of the criteria be damned!
Same with racism. Saying one racist phrase does not a racist make. There are other criteria to be satisfied.
