I don't know and to be honest unlike 99.9% I won't pretend I do know.
As a human being I can't say I'm his biggest fan. I don't think he's as bad as people make out but he's hardly a saint either. However his commitment to his job and Chelsea FC is unquestionable.
JT strikes me as someone who is a bit thick but I genuinely don't think he's a racist. And some Black Chelsea fans I know/mates with have had pictures and conversations with him many a time.
Whilst the video coverage is damning I can see Terry's side of the story, having watched the tape over and over again and I myself am a very good lip-reader it seems perfectly viable he could be telling the truth.
I can't/don't believe that even JT is stupid enough to make an openly racist comment when at least 50% of the people on the pitch are black, something just isn't right. But I also don't believe Anton Ferdinand has the capacity/intelligence to make up such a story. I'm sure there would be a notable change in relationship with the players, we certainly would not have won the CL or FA Cup for sure as team spirit/harmony would have been broken and the club would have got rid of him if that was the case.
There are two/three realistic scenario's here:
1) Terry did racially abuse Ferdinand in the heat of the moment after Anton made provocative comments re: his personal life. Terry has defended himself as he does not want to be labelled a racist, this would lead to a possible sacking offence and many sponsorship deals gone and damaging to his self-image.
2) It's all a big misunderstanding. Terry's account of events are true and Ferdinand upon being shown the tape entirely misunderstood.
3) Rio Ferdinand and people around Anton influenced him whilst he was fragile and confused about events in attempt to get at Terry.
Personally I feel all 3 are highly likely. I thought Bellamy's interview a while ago when he said "Everybody in football know's what JT is like" was quite telling. It's clear that JT doesn't have many friends in football but I never realised he had so many enemies.
But what's done is done, we will never know
