Attitude versus actions should be the argument

I had another thought about Mel Gibson. I read this afternoon that Whoopi Goldberg has been defending the actor on her morning discussion show, The View, all week. To be clear, it seems that she's been defending him against the charges of racism due to the language he's been using in these tapes (allegedly!). She contends that as an African American woman, she would have a better feeling on his racist leanings then other people.
Sure, that may be true, but his loud, and angry, use of derogatory terms makes it pretty clear how he feels about other races and religions. Call it what you will, but it's not open, tolerant and accepting of anyone who's not Gibson himself. But here's the thing: racism, anti-Semitism, and basic hatred for people is an attitude. It's an attitude that people are legally able to have, and really, no one can change. No one is going to change Gibson's mind about African Americans, Mexicans, Jewish people, or women. And there's no law that says he can't have those thoughts and attitudes.
The issue here should be the actual violence that has been done to his ex-girlfriend, and possibly, his ex-wife. The girlfriend has the evidence and (presumed!) admission on tape. The behavior she's dealt with, and if he only hit her once, should not be tolerated by anyone, for any length of time. If she chose to hang with it for a while, well that's her choice, but her decision to leave is her own, too.
People on message boards are saying that she's doing all this for the money. You know what? If he hit her even once, or threatened her with violence, or scared her into fearing for her life or the life of her baby, she deserves any dollar amount she can get. This is the way of our society. If someone can't be punished by law, they are punished via the second-best way: their money is given away. I say, if she gets anything, good for her. You can't listen to those tapes and think that he was a calm individual, and that the reactions and taped conversations were anomalies. She deserves his money for the verbal and emotional abuse he put her through on the phone, and especially for any physical abuse.
And now, I'm done talking about it.