Liam Neeson's interview shows that for some, black people are still not fully human

[muriel_volestrangler]

It is difficult to know where to start with the Neeson interview, so I guess we should start at the beginning and keep going. While promoting his film Cold Pursuit, which centres on a man’s desire for revenge, Neeson reveals his own experience of seeking vengeance. Someone close to him was raped. “My immediate reaction was …” Neeson told the Independent. “I asked, did she know who it was? No.” From here on, we are no longer talking about the woman or sexual violence. Her trauma has become a cypher for Neeson’s desire for retribution.

“What colour were they?” he asked. This is an odd question. When I’ve spoken to friends who have been sexually assaulted it has never occurred to me to ask this. How does it inform your understanding of a rape or comfort the survivor if you know the race of the rapist?
...
Neeson continues. “I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could … kill him.”

So there it is. Neeson is angry and upset and decides to invest his rage in the collective punishment of a group of people based on the colour of their skin. It is perhaps now clearer to some why the early 21st century needed a movement called Black Lives Matter. Because the man who performed a tender love scene with Viola Davis is the same man who fantasised about killing her husband or stepson or anyone else who looked like them. Because the sanctity of black life has yet to be settled. When some white people look at us they see anything from a misplaced grievance to a cautionary tale. What they do not see are human beings. We are still fair game.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/05/liam-neeson-interview-black-people-actor-racism

Audio of the interview section:

We don't know exactly when this was, but obviously when Neeson (born 1952) was an adult, so 70s or later.

[hlthe2b]

1. that interview just left me reeling...

I'd always really liked him but good heavens....

[Proud Liberal Dem]

16. This is probably

something that he should have chosen to keep to himself.

[marlakay]

20. That is exactly what Joy from the view

Said.

He said he went for help when he realized how wrong he was and is being honest so a real conversation can be had.

I think he should have kept quiet because he got all mixed up trying to put his story out.

I really felt he was shocked at himself for the racism and wanted to help fix the problem. But things are so tense now I am not sure he will be cut any slack for his honesty.

[tblue37]

2. My immediate question was whether he would have gone looking for a random white guy to

kill if she had said the rapist was white.

[Doodley]

21. I doubt it. The point is about how he felt at the time, and how how he

feels now, knowing that he was wrong.

My mother hated Germans after her town was bombed in WW2 and her father was killed. Later she knew that was irrational and accepted a German as a daughter-in-law. Was she a racist or a bigot? I don't think so.

[LiberalFighter]

38. Different standards.

People need to stop stereotyping others.

[Sneederbunk]

3. Rape can bring out the worst in people.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Racism too.

[Doodley]

4. It was very honest of him. A rare quality to publicly admit such a thing.

[Mr. Quackers]

5. dogpile in

3 . . . 2 . . . 1

[LuvNewcastle]

27. I agree. Such honesty is rare, at least publicly.

Maybe he’ll inspire other people who struggle with racist thoughts and behavior. I don’t think I would’ve shared that because of the racial tensions today, but I’m not going to criticize him. He’s talking about gritty reality, and people shouldn’t be sheltered from it all the time.

[JCanete]

6. Yes, it absolutely shows that. I mean, that was big of him to admit that he's been able to

disassociate people of color from their humanity, and I think to some extent, that's a human trait, just way way easier for white people who have an institutionalized set of reasons why they never have to find empathy for people of color, whereas the reverse isn't anywhere near true.

I mean him saying this publicly unbidden, suggests to me that he recognizes just how disgusting and wrong this was. He says he's ashamed of it. That suggests movement in the right direction. It is, in my opinion, an example of time where you open up a dialog and don't demonize the man, who like most humans, tends to get their sense of the world packaged into their adulthood based upon cultural understanding and dogma.

[Doodley]

22. I agree with you. But I also think that a sizable percentage of the

white population there is an institutionalized set of reasons to ALWAYS go out their way to find empathy for people of color. A lot of white people understand that people of color have been discriminated against and still are, and want to go out of their way to show they disagree with that.

[Oneironaut]

7. I really hate how the internet pitchfork crowd would have everybody pretend that they're perfect.

Let’s never talk about racism! Anyone who admits to ever having a racist thought should be immediately destroyed! It’s better to pretend that racism doesn’t exist amongst those of us who aren’t evil, irredeemable monsters!

Who the heck is going to talk about racism if it becomes something “we don’t talk about?” Would we rather have a society say, “I’m not a racist because being a racist is nonsensical and ignorant,” or “I’ll pretend not to be a racist because I’m afraid of the social justice mob?”

The internet’s justice bloodlust is tiresome. It’s counter-intuitive to real progress.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. I'm not quite sure why you're blaming this on the internet

OK, I've used the internet to bring this to you; but I heard about it on BBC radio, who were reporting what was was in this morning's papers. This isn't about the internet; it's news.

It's interesting that you think wanting 'justice' is 'bloodlust'. Not that I've particularly seen calls for 'justice' in this - where are they?

I think that Neeson's initial remarks about this are fairly extensive on "revenge is not the right thing", and hardly anything on "why did I think the object of my potential revenge should have been someone with the same colour skin?" rather than, say, someone of the same age. Or even that he should make an attempt to find the perpetrator himself before exacting his revenge. Neeson seems to have needed to have the racism pointed out to him, before he decided to say "I'm not racist" - without, as far as I can see, explaining how he changed from when he was racist.

[Doodley]

23. Liam Neeson is a highly intelligent guy. I don't think he needed it

to be pointed out that his thoughts and actions were racist. That was the whole point of his story. He isn't a moron who had no idea what he was saying.

He could have explained why he changed, but don't you think that is obvious? He's changed with the passage of time. He's met more people of color. He's become more educated and culturally aware He's gained self-knowledge - these are the reasons why people become more open minded and less bigoted.

[Delmette2.0]

29. What he did explain at the beginning of the interview is this.

He grew up in Ireland during what they called the Troubles. A Catholic would be killed and the next day a Protestant would be killed. Then a Catholic bar would be bombed and so would a Protestant bar. It made no sense, just random retribution.

I think his anger a all black men was so sub-conscience he reacted the only way he had learned, random retribution. He figured out how senseless it was and sought help.

So many people never figure out why they are angry at people they don't know so we have random violence.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. It's definitely important to talk about racism. Unfortunately, as with Liam Neeson and as with a lot

of the discussion here about Northam, it generally turns into white people talking about terrible things they've said or done, but that they're good people so these terrible things they've said and done probably weren't too harmful.

I do agree that we need to have spaces where white people can talk to each other about their internalized racism and how white supremacy has benefited them, and that there needs to be room for people to say "I've had racist reactions or thoughts in certain situations." An interview dedicated to promoting a tough-guy movie maybe isn't the best time to do that.

[Adrahil]

8. I think that if you are white in the west....

You have some sort of racism embedded in you, regardless of how you present yourself, or how you consciously think or feel about the subject.

I totally reject racism. And I have had to deal with latent racist feeling more than once. Admitting to them and honestly dealing with them is the way to overcome them. We cannot simply wish them away.

In other words, when someone like this tries to honestly discuss these issues from the point of view of someone looking to overcome them, we should welcome it.

[Doodley]

25. I can honestly say I have never felt anything racist. I can't remember a time

in my life that I have ever thought less of people of color. I have had homophobic thoughts, decades ago, and I am ashamed of that, as that is far from the person I am now.

But I agree, we should be able to talk about it. It should be able to be done without denigrating the person who has made a change. If not, dialogue and subsequent healing cannot happen.

[Adrahil]

34. Good for you.

Most of us cannot say that, I think. I grew up in a pretty racist area. Hard to avoid.

[MineralMan]

10. That kind of random selection of someone to punish is pure racism.

Many people wish for revenge when someone close to them is harmed. However, to go out and actively seek an anonymous target who is of a particular race for that revenge is beyond the normal reaction.

This is very troubling.

[womanofthehills]

13. Agreed. I find it very pathological to think you have the right to harm anyone

[Doodley]

24. Let me tell you a story. A man went to a bar.

While he was there a man with a bald head and glasses stole his wallet. The man whose wallet had been stolen was furious. He went out each night looking for that man with a bald head and glasses. He hoped that man with a bald head and glasses would try to pick-pocket from him again. If that happened, he would beat him. Even if it was a different thief, he would beat him.

Do you think the man whose wallet was stolen specifically hated men with bald heads and glasses?

[JI7]

26. who did that ?

[MineralMan]

35. That story never happened. That's the difference.

A person can make up all kinds of stories in trying to make some sort of point. But, they can't compete with real stories that actually happened.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Liam Neeson was looking for a Trayvon Martin, and people think he deserves kudos for being so

honest? There are a lot of ways to talk about internalized racism that can bring healing and reconciliation through self-awareness. Saying you were looking for an innocent black man to kill in the context of promoting a tough-man movie is not a way to do it.

[ExciteBike66]

33. It's strange you felt the need to put out multiple posts to crap on Neeson...

Why didn't you just create a single post on this topic?

He does deserve kudos for being honest about this. The "easy" way would have been to bottle it up inside and never tell anyone about it. Neeson is taking the hard way here.

As for the movie, of course no one has seen it, but perhaps it includes some points about revenge that stem from Neeson's experience regarding the rape and subsequent revenge-seeking.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Imagine if a pit bull attacked his friend, and he talked about walking the streets looking for a dog

he could beat to death because he was so angry.

[Tipperary]

18. Yes.

Well put.

[ExciteBike66]

32. Why would we need to imagine this?

What he said he did is bad enough, there is no need to create alternate scenarios that are intended to horrify us.

[Greybnk48]

15. I commend his honesty, and for showing how easily

people can dehumanize other people, even who groups of people, when they are in a frenzied emotional state. Just regular people like Liam Neeson.

It's very much like what Hannah Arendt and Eli Wiesel wrote about.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. SWEET CHRIST I MISSED THE PART WHERE POWER WALKING AND CATHOLIC CONFESSION

MADE HIS RACISM GO AWAY.

[ExciteBike66]

31. It seems to me that confession is a type of therapy, which seems like a good way

to sort out the kind of person you wish to be after having such racist thoughts.

[ZZenith]

28. I will never forgive Liam Neeson for what he did

to that armless, legless orator friend of his.

[lunamagica]

36. What did he do?

[ZZenith]

39. His character in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

was very mean to a helpless person and he played it so well that I have a hard time separating fact from fiction.

[ExciteBike66]

30. One sad part of the story is that people think he should have kept it to himself.

This guy is being honest about a terrible thought he once had, and how it later made him feel. This kind of stuff is what we need when it comes to confronting racism.

The people who think he should never have said anything are basically asking for people to not discuss their own personal racism.

[Doodley]

37. Well said. That he said it, makes him a better person.