A former New York Times reporter who left the paper under contentious circumstances last month has pushed back on the notion that he’s racist and criticized the paper’s leadership. Donald McNeil Jr. departed the paper after his use of a racial slur while leading an official student trip surfaced in news reports, stoking anger among some colleagues. Dean Baquet, the New York Times editor-in-chief, initially told employees that McNeil did not appear to have malicious intentions when using the slur, and was formally disciplined after an investigation. But McNeil was soon exiting the paper, it announced in a news story about memos Baquet sent staff. He wrote that McNeil “has done much good reporting over four decades” but added “that this is the right next step.” The ouster came after a group of staffers sent a letter to the paper’s publisher, alleging that the paper’s commitment to “diversity and inclusion” was …