People say a lot of things when they're fed propaganda. It's arrogant to assume that you or I wouldn't say or think problematic things if we were fed propaganda our entire lives from our community, etc, and didn't interact with other people. In other words, being ignorant.

Things like racism are largely defeated through education. We don't know the full story here with this guy, but it's certainly possible for people to hold bigoted beliefs at one point in their life and then change views after becoming more knowledgeable.

A large portion of people act like once someone says something, their belief will never ever change and thus are irredeemable to society. I'm sure that's good for society in the long run. /s