Liam Neeson, WTF

[DemocratSinceBirth]

https://bossip.com/1698300/liam-neeson-kill-black-bastard/


And I liked some of his work. Some thoughts are better kept to yourself.

[MrsMatt]

1. Try a less sensational source for nuace

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/entertainment/liam-neeson-gma/index.html

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. A black person raped his friend.

His first impulse was to blame the entire race. Understandable but wrong. You don't blame a whole group for the actions of one individual. If that was the case I would blame every German for the Holocaust and African Americans would blame every white person for slavery. But he was hot. He eventually calmed down but for a week he wanted to kill anybody of the same race that raped his friend. And then the inflammatory epithets.

He eventually calmed down and came to his senses .

It could have been a teachable moment.

[MrsMatt]

4. I was sexually assaulted by a man

and it took longer than a week for me to not blame the entire male sex.

[chowder66]

6. This. nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. This is entirely fair.

I'm sorry you have to carry that.

[MrsMatt]

22. thanks

[gtar100]

2. We all come from somewhere with lessons to learn.

If someone's always been a goody two-shoes, I don't trust them. They haven't learned much other than to play by the rules. Reading the whole article, sounds like Liam learned from his experience and has changed for the better. The headline sounds more like a hit job. Sensationalism. Reminds me to read more books.

[patricia92243]

5. Sounds like he was in a bad place in his life and now realizes he was acting out because he was

distraught. I think he would have gone after anybody that he thought was the bad guy - if it had been an albino.

[obamanut2012]

7. He made her rape about his anger

Pepole keep glossing over this part. The rape was not about HIM and his so-called revenge. It was about her.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. This is a really good point.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. 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.

[Adrahil]

11. Imagine if he said he was ashamed of doing that.

People can an do learn from their mistakes.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Where did he say he was ashamed?

What has he learned? I mean, I guess he learned that he was racist. And then power-walked and went to confession and everything was fine.

There is nothing in this story worth admiring.

[Adrahil]

24. He said...

“It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that.”

And I disagree. It’s time to expose latent racism.

[Adrahil]

12. I'll disagree....

Keeping these kinds of experiences to ourselves is exactly the wrong thing to do. Let’s talk about latent racism. And let’s talk about recognizing and dealing with it, not burying it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. I agree that there should be places for white people to deconstruct and discuss racist feelings,

actions, things they've done as a result of being raised in a white supremacy. However, celebrating someone with little to no training in unlearning racism for talking about his racism isn't really a good way to go about that.

I would also argue that what Neeson was discussing wasn't "latent racism." By his own words, he was ready to do murder. It was only because he didn't find someone to murder that he didn't. So either he was saying he was ready to murder someone, or he was talking big in racist tropes, which is also harmful.

[Adrahil]

28. Okay.... might as well put myself on the list...

It my 20’s my mom was mugged and assaulted by a young black man. I also geared up for a fight and went looking for trouble. A friend stopped my from doing it.

I’m very ashamed I did that. But I did.

I also said some terribly homophobic stuff. I felt it was justified at the time. It wasn’t.

I’m probably off your Christmas card list... despite the fact that I now completely reject that behavior.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

31. Dismantling racism in the U.S. will take a lot more than white people confessing their individual

sins and saying they've done better since.

[Adrahil]

33. Of course it will.

But white folks, even good liberal white folks like myself, admitting latent racist feelings is part of the process, IMO. In fact, my memory of those visceral, hateful thoughts is one thing that informs my desire to fight racism. I am shocked that I could have ever felt that way, even for a short time.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

41. In light of the way I came out of the gate at you, hope it's not presumptive to say that if we were

talking in person, I think we'd get to a place of agreement pretty quickly.

[Adrahil]

42. I agree. I might have prickled, but I took no offense, really.

This is a hard subject, and I think reasonable people can have some disagreement... and work towards understanding.

[cwydro]

13. I'm in Ireland right now. It's on the news.

My Irish friends with whom I spent the day today hadn’t heard the news and had that same reaction - WTF?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. I liked his tough guy mien but that was a bit much.

[cwydro]

16. Yeah, and I find it hard to buy the "I would have been the same if he was British, Irish, etc."

A Brit, an Irishman, or a Lithuanian are not going to be obvious as such as they walk out of a pub - did he intend to interview each one had the rapist not been black?

Seems like he made a really bad miscalculation at trying to hype his movie. As they say over here. Jaysus, what an eejit.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. It's amazing how he went from a lovable sensitive guy in Love Actually to playing tough guy roles.

[cwydro]

23. Yeah, I like him as an actor.

This is confusing and sad.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. He was great in Widows and A Walk Among the Tombstones

[cwydro]

30. I guess I remember him most from Schindler's list.

This seems to be the month for stupid white people to say or do stupid things. Smh.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. During Black History Month, OF COURSE.

And on what would have been Trayvon Martin's 25th birthday.

[cwydro]

34. And the night is not over. The stupidest of all stupid white people is readying his stupid speech.

It’s after midnight where I am, and thank god I’ll be fast asleep by the time the moron takes the mike.

I almost dread checking in here in the morning.

I didn’t know it would have been Trayvon Martin’s birthday. Thanks for that. He’s not forgotten.

[mr_lebowski]

40. Neeson's Rob Roy is one of my favorite movies of all time ...

And Schindlers List is brilliant as well, of course.

[WillowTree]

18. Well.......the bastard who raped his friend did happen to be black so.......

…….I don't really have a problem with what he said. His follow-up actions were grossly unadvised and could have had tragic results and I'm glad for him and all who were potentially involved that he came to his senses and learned from the situation.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. You don't have a problem with him saying he was out in the street looking for someone to murder?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

29. I can understand but not countenance his initial reaction.

What I can't countenance is not getting over it quickly, hunting for a black man to hurt or kill, and then repeating the epithet all these years later.

[EffieBlack]

36. Isn't his "confession" exactly what we criticized Northam for NOT doing?

Neeson isn't bragging about his behavior or trying to justify it. He's he's clearly not proud of it but is acknowledging it and explaining it.

I'm glad he said it. It's something we need to hear. Among other things, it reminds us that racism is right in our midst and all racists aren't in blackface and Klan robes. Some of them are movie stars we admire. It also reminds us that people can actually overcome it.

[WillowTree]

37. No. I meant that I don't have any problem with referring to the rapist as "the black bastard".

Perhaps I should have been more clear.

[cwydro]

26. You're missing so many parts of this. Why did he ask the color of the rapist to begin with?

Why did he think it ok to kill some innocent man of color - a father, a son, a brother, a husband?

It’s a weird story to me. I think it’s sad on any number of levels.

[WillowTree]

38. I guess you missed the part where I said that his follow-up actions were "grossly unadised".

Some people only see what they want to see.

[uponit7771]

27. I have a problem with it being black but understand if it was a statement he regretted later.

[MicaelS]

20. No shit, he should have not said a thing. n/t

[ms liberty]

35. The article you linked to did not use everything he said when he recounted that experience

And in fact, by doing so, they present a picture of his comments that is not accurate. Maybe you should read the whole article from cnn in linked in the first reply.