Joe Wilson isn’t considered a racist merely because he breached House protocol and shouted out during the President’s speech. He is considered an idiot for this. He could have simply grumbled and booed or checked his email and twittered like Eric Cantor did. Joe Wilson is an idiot because he shouted out “You Lie” when all objective sources could see it was the truth. (BTW, not his first incident of this, during Washington Journal on CSpan he called his opposition debater a liar for saying that America had given WMD’s to Iraq)

Joe Wilson is considered a racist because of a string of racist incidents. Addison “Joe” Wilson voted against the removal of the stars and bars over the South Carolina state house which in and of itself doesn’t denote a racist, but when coupled with his slander of Strom Thurmonds black illegitimate daughter Essie Mae as trying to smear her fathers image (a man who ran as a segregationist candidate for president). Do these incidences make the man a racist? I don’t know what is in his heart and I cannot speak to his motivations. I do know he seems to frequently engage in racist behavior however.