Man went around hunting everyday black people with the intention to kill based simply around their race. He was a racist.
Whether or not he still is now I'm not sure. I believe people can change and own to their faults and grow from their failures. This happened decades ago.
However, Liam seems to stress more on the feelings of revenge more than the racial implications of his statement. That's not to say revenge isn't an equally important topic, but he's not framing it as,"I was a racist in the past, and I'm sorry for my past actions". No, he's instead doubling down and saying he's not a racist without understanding why people feel that what he did was racist.
As someone who used to be racist against white people, I get it. But you have to own up to the fact that you were a racist in order for this to work.