Liam Neeson: Rape, Revenge, and Race Relations

[bennyboy]

... and of course this thread I created as a way to discuss the repercussions of racial violence, how deeply-ingrained racism is, and the potential of an individual to rise above their own irrational biases turns into just another shouting match. And we wonder why we as a society are so unprepared for a serious, sober, discussion of race.

Well, I'd start with the human animal.  We have tribal instincts, and there is science showing it's ingrained.  People say "Babies aren't born racist, they have to learn it." Babies, it turns out, already do in fact show a preference for same-race faces.  This isn't surprising to me, as the further from the mother a person looks, the less safe (I'd imagine) a baby feels around him or her.

So right off the bat, I'd throw out the idea that racism is purely a social construct.  I'd look at it as an instinct that we should understand and manage, and see how bad narratives spin off of it.

Neeson, in my opinion, has expressed this pretty well: that when someone is enraged by an individual from an identifiable group, he may project that rage onto the entire group.