Not really. I'd rather be racially abused than assaulted.
He hardly knocked the other player out. We've seen violent conduct loads of times and the ban hasn't been anywhere near 12 games.
He already had had a red card earlier in the season, which means his first straight red for violent conduct is a four game ban. Then he gets himself another violent conduct seconds after, which technically could be his second red card that game, and should be a five game ban, and then he tries to start several fights on his way out from the pitch, which I assume is where the other three games comes in to it. If anything, he was lucky to get away with 12.
The question should surely be why Suarez got twice as many games as Terry, not why Barton got the punishment he did?