There is bound to be more of a scattershot response from people who are only effected by the situation insofar as they will talk about here. I would expect Maher to have a better response than others who jump to defend the joke in the moment. Reason being that 1 - he knows he fucked up and his show might be on the line ; but also 2 that he is versed on issues in a way many aren't , even if he sometimes lets his old , white, rich , dudeness out in an unexpected error where mistakes like this happen.

In that many were also deliberately insulting the intelligence of those bothered by the racist remark.
There was a heap of additional hostility, calls to apologize to Maher- and that is not acceptable.