Michael Richards did nothing wrong

I agree. But there are different (not necessarily exclusive) charges that can be set to Richards. (1) That he's a bad stand-up comic, (2) that he lost his temper, and (3) that he's a racist.

I think (2) is basically indisputable. He's said as much and he doesn't look like somebody who's doing rage as a put-on for comic purposes (like a Bill Burr type thing). Number two is what I think he's very, very guilty of and he did express remorse for that.

The first charge is kinda what set him off, so I think (1) is probably true as well. Silverman's right: he shouldn't lose it like that, he should handle the crowd, and he should be in control - of himself at the very minimum. The hecklers said he wasn't funny and was washed up and he lost his temper because it was truth.

As to (3), maybe he is. I don't know. But I think he hollered out racist epithets because he wanted to hurt the hecklers as badly as they hurt him. It's possible he's racist, but I don't think he's a virulent racist. Put it this way: if Richards had some hangups or low-key prejudices, that wouldn't surprise me; a lot of people do. But it would surprise me if he refused to have interracial friendships or used that language in his private life.

Oh, yeah, he definitely comes off as the jerk. The irony is that if he had held it together, finished his set, or actually ripped on the guy (asking the heckler what he did for a living probably wouldn't have stacked up to being on Seinfeld, so Richards would have had him dead to rights) and nobody would have even noticed.