For years the common refrain was that racism was rooted in ignorance and fear. In that frame, combating racism, whether individual or institutional, was always seen as a matter of enlightenment, not pathology. But Michael Richards' outburst seems to have changed nature of the discussion a bit.

Richards says he's not a racist and claimed that his outburst was a product of rage and a defensive reaction to being heckled:

"This rage has no color. I know that what I said hurt an African American. I will take full responsibility for this and promote apology and go for healing. I was in a place of humiliation, and I came out with uh, a tirade to humiliate. There's no justification for the things that I said."

Richards has said that he's seeing a pyschotherapist to deal with anger management, but the issue of his anger and the racist comments it inspired are so closely linked it's hard to separate the two.

Jesse Jackson clearly thinks Richards' racism is a sickness from which he needs to "get well", a point he made repeatedly on CNN yesterday after interviewing Richards earlier in the day on his radio program.

Is Richards "sick" because of a general deep-seated anger that caused him to snap on stage, or because his rage was directed at African-Americans, or a combination of the two?