>i think it's a bit unfair to judge him on some things he said privately to a friend.

I think it must be nice to think private racist thoughts expressed so regularly are just fine. Usually this kind of thinking is because the person can't ever imagine being affected by racism.

I wonder how many people throughout his career he refused to work with, didn't hire, went after, because of their skin color. People aren't famously racist without ever expressing it.

> I wonder how many people throughout his career he refused to work with...

No, he was a business partner of Mr. T for years.