The Liam Neeson Debate - My Opinion

"But my immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person"

"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 [uses air quotes with fingers] 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."

This is arguably the most controversial part of the interview, firstly I think the main problem with this is the racist tone to it and although the main story was about Neeson acting with violence to try to avenge his friend who was raped. That wanting to avenge would probably be accepted by most people as reasonable in the spur of the moment and also the way he talks about the regret he had over his actions. However he did not apologize and feel remorse for the racism.

This action was racist, blaming a whole race because of one's action is completely wrong, the fact that he was willing to kill a random black person in order to satisfy his anger is extraordinarily terrible. Also the fact that he asked "What color" was the assailant shows racist bias. I think he needs to apologize for these actions or clarify what he meant by this, the problem is that he doesn't give a location of where this took place. If it took place in his home nation, Northern Ireland then It could have been a reasonable question (although still racist bias) because there would have been almost no people of minority or African descent living there. If he went to kill a black person the chances that it could have been him or related to the person who raped his friend would have been high. This is not justifying his actions but you have to try to understand the context to start accusing him.

The fact he associated a single back persons actions to a race is racist but could be understandable, although not at all rational. I think most people would have some level of bias towards a race if an individual of that race attacked/raped/killed your family, if a Lithuanian killed a member of my family I would likely have a racist bias against that race, but I doubt I would go around trying to kill one of them, however none of us know how we would react in that situation.

You must also look back at the time it took place, the fact it was in the 70's where racism was rife in greater quantities and severity than it is today, and also the place Liam Neeson came from which at the time was a very violent place where racist views were likely more common. This would have probably had an effect on Neeson, he might have initially saw violence as a reasonable action, he might have been averagely racist. Now that was 40 years ago and most people change quite a lot in that time, I don't believe he is racist and the way he talked about the event was likely surfacing his emotions of the week he was racist and incredibly angry.

I am not trying to excuse his behavior it was terrible, it was racist, but if he continues to show remorse for all his actions including the racist ones then I believe that is enough. No one should be held on angry thoughts 40 years ago, if he had actually murdered or assaulted someone then that is a different story.

What are your opinions?