I know there are a lot of people who think that we are not a racist society, but I am not one of them. I think the actions of those four white men were clearly racist, and their primary motivation was the one described by @johnnysilvercloud : their belief that no black person ever has the right to assert authority over any white person. https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/montgomery-riverboat-incident-f9203621537d

I think that this is one of the most toxic aspects of systematic racism, and for that reason I think the actions of the Black men who retaliated were fully justified. I believe this even though some of them aggressively confronted the white men after the violence had subsided. Those bastards had it coming and I was happy to see justice was done, and not mere defense. My concern is how to turn my approval of that action into a general principle. I think that needs to be done, and I don't have any confidence in my ability to do it.

I had only read reports, and hadn't looked at the video. Now that I have seen it several times, it still looks to me that only those four, and the one woman who was with them, were on the side of the bullies. But the images are confusing, and I am not sure of that. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if a white stranger had jumped in. I also didn't know that a white woman had pointed out the instigators. I'm sure that made a difference, so perhaps my flickers of hope were misplaced. But I still derive some hope from the fact that arrests were made on only one of the Black participants, and all of the white instigators. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)