Am a United fan and not a Liverpool one.
But, at presesnt, nobody has showed me any evidence that what the young lad from Oldham was subjected to was racist abuse.
I think the comment from the ITV commentator this afternoon when the screen was full of hate-filled in-breds - all footballers are subject to abuse, be they red, blue, black, white - was excellent and about as far as anyone can go in these PC times.
That said, I am not a racist and if anyone has truly fallen foul of the law then I say 'punish them'. But, as puppetmaster has pointed out, it can become a lot more subtle and a bit of a mine field - just as per Diane Abbot.