What do you think about Liam Neeson admitting he once wanted to kill a black man?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a problem with that. I think if she had said it was a tall man with blond hair he would’ve done the same thing. Love and learn.

I don't agree with this at all. Even knowing it was a black person, he could have decided to go after a person with dark hair, or dark eyes, or tall/short, thin/stocky. Instead he picked the man's race rather than any of the other characteristics.

I don't find it at all surprising, then again I'm a black person. It's the same way that people who seem perfectly nice might spout off a racial slur when drunk or very angry.

Er, you just described yourself as a black person, not a dark-haired person or a tall person or a thin person.

Because that is relevant to the topic. If he had admitted to wanting to kill *insert some other characteristic* then we would be talking about that.

[Anonymous]

He has a movie coming out this weekend, and I'm sure the movie company and his publicist want to strangle him for being so stupid. People really shouldn't say everything that is on their minds.

I was raped by 2 black guys and my DH's cousin was bound and gagged and put in a trunk by some black guys. While we wouldn't go around saying the same thing as Liam, our families probably feel the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America punished every brown person after 9/11. It was a group of crazies who happened to be brown/Arab/Muslim, and all of a sudden, everyone they assumed was related to anything that Arab, Muslim, Brown was vilified. TV show after TV show, movie after movie, hate crime after hate crime. And the response to that? Well, they are terrorists. Well, they hate us. Over a BILLION Muslims. Millions of Arab Christians, Millions of Sikhs suffer the racism on a day to day, and now we're all SHOCKED that a white man felt a similar thing after an attack on a loved one? Oh, the hypocrisy.

Was he stupid to have admitted this? Yes. Is he any different than those who sit and watch NCIS or label Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, etc. terrorist just because? NO, those people are actually worse because they don't see how wrong they are, and he did.

Yes, I think the redeeming factor here is that he freely admitted and knows that he was wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He has a movie coming out this weekend, and I'm sure the movie company and his publicist want to strangle him for being so stupid. People really shouldn't say everything that is on their minds.

I was raped by 2 black guys and my DH's cousin was bound and gagged and put in a trunk by some black guys. While we wouldn't go around saying the same thing as Liam, our families probably feel the same way.

I'm sorry, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's really up to black people if they want to be forgiving of it- white people can cite the generation, the location, his honesty, and the fact that he believes he has changed- but it still must be hurtful in a way that I don't understand first hand.

Look. I’m Puerto Rican. If he had said his family member was raped by a Latino and he roamed the streets looking for a Latino to beat up, I wouldn’t take that as racist at all. #context

pp here- that's my point. I'm not going to put it into context *for* you because you have the right to feel how you feel. It's probably frustrating to a black person, or anyone who has experienced racism or discrimination, having other people tell them how they should feel about it. If the black community decides to be forgiving, that is their call.

He is mostly redeemed in my eyes because I respect honestly and I value forgiveness--I wouldn't feel the same way, if he had actually physically hurt someone. I think Liam Neeson and his hypothetical victim got a pass because he never found anyone to harm. How many of us have been saved from ourselves and given a second chance by luck or fate?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure he admitted he was wrong about targeting a random black man. His contrition was about the limitations of revenge.

This piece in the Guardian really breaks down the continuing dehumanization of black people in LN's story:

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

[Anonymous]

He did not show up to his movie premier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He has a movie coming out this weekend, and I'm sure the movie company and his publicist want to strangle him for being so stupid. People really shouldn't say everything that is on their minds.

I was raped by 2 black guys and my DH's cousin was bound and gagged and put in a trunk by some black guys. While we wouldn't go around saying the same thing as Liam, our families probably feel the same way.

In those cases, I think most family members and close friends would share Neeson's sentiment. It's a gut reaction b/c these acts are senseless. So you just want to place blame on anyone who resembles the assailant. I think it's a normal immediate reaction. Once you have time to process through it, you realize you're generalizing. many, not all - I can't make another generalization here!

sorry, PP, about the incidents

[Anonymous]

It is 100% racist. I can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree to that. If she said she was raped by a white guy, no way he would have gone out looking for any white guy to kill. And most likely, she wouldn’t have just said a white guy. She would have said a blonde with an accent from Manchester or something like that, and he would have gone out to a pub after a Manchester game and looked for a blonde guy to pick a fight. The fact is that he saw only the race. That is racist.

He’s said or done other icky things before, I think. At the beginning off his career, I really liked him but I feel like as the years go on, he’s less impressive.

This confession would have been much more sincere if he’d expressed it as “growing up in Northern Ireland, I didn’t meet many black people. And I know I have prejudices I need to overcome ....”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a movie coming out this weekend, and I'm sure the movie company and his publicist want to strangle him for being so stupid. People really shouldn't say everything that is on their minds.

I was raped by 2 black guys and my DH's cousin was bound and gagged and put in a trunk by some black guys. While we wouldn't go around saying the same thing as Liam, our families probably feel the same way.

In those cases, I think most family members and close friends would share Neeson's sentiment. It's a gut reaction b/c these acts are senseless. So you just want to place blame on anyone who resembles the assailant. I think it's a normal immediate reaction. Once you have time to process through it, you realize you're generalizing. many, not all - I can't make another generalization here!

sorry, PP, about the incidents

Thank you and an earlier poster. I have to say to this day, I'm still afraid of seeing black men when I walk down the street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is 100% racist. I can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree to that. If she said she was raped by a white guy, no way he would have gone out looking for any white guy to kill. And most likely, she wouldn’t have just said a white guy. She would have said a blonde with an accent from Manchester or something like that, and he would have gone out to a pub after a Manchester game and looked for a blonde guy to pick a fight. The fact is that he saw only the race. That is racist.

He’s said or done other icky things before, I think. At the beginning off his career, I really liked him but I feel like as the years go on, he’s less impressive.

This confession would have been much more sincere if he’d expressed it as “growing up in Northern Ireland, I didn’t meet many black people. And I know I have prejudices I need to overcome ....”

Thank goodness. The past pages of rationalizations and normalization are a nice explanation of how racism has lasted this long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume most white people of a certain age from certain locations had racist tendencies in their past if they don’t still currently have them.

People of all races have racist tendencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is 100% racist. I can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree to that. If she said she was raped by a white guy, no way he would have gone out looking for any white guy to kill. And most likely, she wouldn’t have just said a white guy. She would have said a blonde with an accent from Manchester or something like that, and he would have gone out to a pub after a Manchester game and looked for a blonde guy to pick a fight. The fact is that he saw only the race. That is racist.

He’s said or done other icky things before, I think. At the beginning off his career, I really liked him but I feel like as the years go on, he’s less impressive.

This confession would have been much more sincere if he’d expressed it as “growing up in Northern Ireland, I didn’t meet many black people. And I know I have prejudices I need to overcome ....”

Thank goodness. The past pages of rationalizations and normalization are a nice explanation of how racism has lasted this long.

+1. When you generalize to an entire group based on one person's actions, that is racist.

I'm a multiracial black person, and have a distant non-black relative who was apparently raped by a black man. Years later, she now apparently hates all black people. That is also racist. You don't see black women who are raped by black men hating all black men, white women who are raped by white men hating all white men, etc. The idea of picking out the color of their skin as the most prominent feature and then extrapolating negative associations to all people with the same color skin is racist.

[Anonymous]

I can understand it. And no, I don't think it makes him or anyone else racist unless those feelings continue. I think it's all rooted in our protection instincts and desire for revenge on anyone who wrongs a loved one.

[Anonymous]

Why would he say something like this? Hint, he is a major drinker, has been since early 90s. Drunk like a skunk in Prague night clubs even then.