By thuggish, I was just implying that he looks like Mr. T with a machine gun for an arm, was the leader of a terrorist organization and used strong, improper English. I didn't know Barrett was Black, I thought he was more of a Mexican Brown. Shows how much I know
And there is a pretty big difference between a stereotype and an archetype, Square wasn't being racist - they wanted an intimidating, strong willed character from an intellectually simple background, he was a coal miner before he was a terrorist
Edit: You cannot tell me with a straight face that this character isn't the epitome of a gangster/thug