racism? from a white person's perspective

this is converted from my 6/29/07 myspace blog.

former Grey's Anatomy star, Isaiah Washinton said racism was a factor in his firing from the tv show. for those who don't remember (as if there is anyone who doesn't know this story), Washington was in the hot-seat for using anti-gay slurs to his co-star during a confrontation. he was eventually fired from the show because of public backlash towards him for using the word "fag."
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070629/D8Q27CRG0.html
now, he is saying that he was fired because "someone heard the booming voice of a black man and got really scared and that was the beginning of the end for me."
my first instinct upon reading this was annoyance. sadly, i thought what many white people think... "another black person using the race card to excuse his failure."
the fact of the matter is, he DID use the word "fag" multiple times during a confrontation.
but, was he already disliked before this?
was he a so-called "angry black man?"
and if so, is this really any different from an "angry white man?" or "angry woman?" he said people were intimidated by him because he didn't buy into the slave mentality that so many black people allegedly buy into..."Well, it didn't help me on the set that I was a black man who wasn't a mush-mouth Negro walking around with his head in his hands all the time. I didn't speak like I'd just left the plantation and that can be a problem for people sometime," he said."
the problem with this is that most white people don't want "mush-mouth Negros" walking around. they just want normality in their interactions with people. and that does not include anger, shouting, and drama. i think that's what everyone wants in their interactions with other people. and if he was a constant source of this type of drama, i can understand why he intimidated people. there are lots of angry, loud people out there (white, black, latino, etc), and all of them are a little scary.
but, this is also why i hate the media. they can blow anything out of proportion, and NO ONE in the general public knows what really went on daily on the set.
and sometimes people ARE intimidated by a minority (or woman) who doesn't always agree with the white people (or men). and just because they don't agree with the majority, they are deemed "another angry black man/woman." or the woman "must have PMS."
because we all know that woman who are assertive and able to speak their mind are bitches. yet men who are assertive and speak their mind are ambitious and successful.
but black men, by far, get the worst of this in the US.
so there are two sides here:
1. the people who will side with Washington, and say that minorities who speak up are discriminated against because they intimidate white people.
2. the people against Washington, who will say that he is a homophobe looking to use racism to excuse his actions.
maybe both are correct.
so, maybe i was too quick to judge.
is he making up a bad excuse for his blatantly homophobic remarks?
or does he have a legitimate claim based on years of racist oppression? i wish there was some way to know before the media was able to distort the truth and paint their own picture for the masses. in the end, people are going to believe what they want to believe.
but hopefully, some will stop to wonder first that perhaps both sides of the argument are right. and wrong.