I don't think anybody thinks race is involved in this incident (if we want to call it that), we can pretty much all agree a white person getting caught on video doing the same would be just as under pressure. I think people acting as if Antonio has zero point in what he said of the response this got compared to racism in football is where people can make the point that there's some (blissful) ignorance on a valid point he is making.
There's only so much you can say about animal abuse, so people asking to stick to the subject....what subject? You're not going to get very far in a debate on animal abuse, are you? It's wrong and don't do it, Antonio addressed that. Racism is a much more complicated subject obviously, and while people can understandably dislike addressing it, or feel like it's overly used, that notion comes from a position where you're not really affected by it beyond inconvenience that it gets into your escape of sports. However, for someone like Antonio, or any black athletes with family and relatives that deal with it on a consistent basis, you will use any opportunity you can to bring it up, and seeing the level of vitriol aimed at Zouma over animal abuse and some of the lax response racism has gotten is obviously, clearly, most definitely going to get this kind of counter-point from a black athlete if you ask them about it, fair or not (and I think it's fair). He didn't get on his soapbox to make this point, they asked him a question and he answered them with something that I thought was far more interesting than just saying how bad animal abuse is and that he condemns Zouma's actions (which he did as well).