Liam Neeson: Rape, Revenge, and Race Relations

[The Grand Nudger]

The "big deal" is a disparity in brand image and reality when it comes to people who are more fantasy than flesh and blood in the minds of their fans.

[Yonadav]

One could hope that looking for some darkie to lynch is less common today than it was 40 years ago, even if "cracking heads" is as common as ever.  More than anything, it's an example of a celeb stepping in brand damaging shit.  IDK why people rarely think of celebs as people with all of peoples faults and weirdness and regrets and misdeeds past and present, but it's a thing.

Cracking heads comes and goes with time and geography. It isn't as popular as ever. It comes and goes. We've been moving into a head cracking phase here in America. The 'punchable face' has become a meme. And people are running around punching people in the face. Even a couple of children have been described in the media as having punchable faces.

[The Grand Nudger]

I wouldn't know, it's always been popular where I'm from.

[Rev. Rye]

Black bastard sounds pretty specific, lol.

I think the fact that this appears to have happened in Northern Ireland might be a crucial part in understanding it, not just how toxic the Troubles were to life in the area, but also the fact that Northern Ireland is probably the whitest place on Earth. According to the 2011 census, its population is 98.28% white. Ten years prior, it was 99.25% white. I don’t know what the stats were when this happened, but they’re probably higher. With that in mind, the fact that he reached this point makes a horrifying amount of sense. After all, in such a situation, that racial rage a lot less likely to be tempered by the reality of the situation.

[Yonadav]

Black bastard sounds pretty specific, lol.

I think the fact that this appears to have happened in Northern Ireland might be a crucial part in understanding it, not just how toxic the Troubles were to life in the area, but also the fact that Northern Ireland is probably the whitest place on Earth. According to the 2011 census, its population is 98.28% white. Ten years prior, it was 99.25% white. I don’t know what the stats were when this happened, but they’re probably higher. With that in mind, the fact that he reached this point makes a horrifying amount of sense. After all, in such a situation, that racial rage a lot less likely to be tempered by the reality of the situation.

Northern Ireland has been a place of racial rage for a long time. All of Ireland, really. "White" is a 'race' primarily in the US and other colonized nations. In Ireland, the racial fault line is between descendants of the indigenous Irish and those of the British. Just because both races have pale complexions doesn't make the conflict any less racial. The point that I'm making is that their culture is a hotbed of racism, and they have a tendency to view conflict in racial terms.

[The Grand Nudger]

IDK, Rev...place where I grew up is famous for having hosted a full on lynchapalooza in an area that would have been the polar opposite of those stats... where the alleged crime was entirely made up.  That specific type of racial rage appears to be immune to reality regardless of geography or ethnic demographics. Hell, it's positively timeless, even. Looks like Liam set out to do what others five thousand miles and eighty years removed, in a wholly different situation succeeded fantastically at.

I'm just glad he failed, so that I can enjoy the revenge pron he's become famous for. That story of his does give some insight into why he found his niche with those sorts of roles.

[Athene]

Liam Neeson admitted to actively seeking to make a black guy, ANY black guy pay for one person's alleged crime...with their LIFE, no less. And yet, his takeaway from that week long debacle was "Revenge is bad, m'kay? It made ME feel all icky inside. Btw, my upcoming film explores the topic of revenge. Check out it out".
Nothing about the little "folly" of holding an entire race of people responsible for the actions of single, and seeking to mete out a death sentence. Not just thinking about it, but actively attempting to do it.

Every night.
For an entire week.

By going to black areas and waiting for ANY random Negro to approach or look at him funny, so he could claim he felt "threatened" and justify bashing an innocent guy's brains in for the crime of being Black...because that's what the alleged attacker was. 

And after his comments got criticism, this big, dumb RACIST lummox was all like "Huh? What racism? What are you talking about? I'm not a racist. Where are you getting this from?"....LOL. I think he didn't bother to offer any insight on the thoroughly dehumanizing and dangerous practice of racial broadbrushing simply because he has yet to make to make that connection, or at least hadn't at the time of the interview. He didn't view that aspect of the story as particularly problematic. 
Seems pretty clear to me that Neeson revealed his hand without intending to....And now certain folks are lauding him for being "refreshingly honest and open", and insisting that everyone cut him some slack and give him cookies for it.

LMFAO

Well congrats to him for NOT succeeding in multiple attempts at setting up just any ole black guy to be KILLED, I guess. And for calling it quits once he realized his effort were emotionally exhaustive and time-consuming for HIM.

But, yeah...fuck Liam Neemson. There's no way I'd willingly line that piece-of-shit's pockets, in knowing how far he was willing to go in his racial hatred and contempt.

I'm sure his movie will perform at the box-office just fine in MAGA land though. The "Angry White Man" gone rogue/delivering street justice trope is crazy popular among that demographic....LOL. His career will survive.
No need for covert racists and/or Liam Neeson stans to work themselves into a tizzy.

[The Grand Nudger]

In fairness, his comment on not being a racist was more of a present tense thing.  The narrative is that he was ashamed precisely because he realized that this unconscious racism was ever-present.  In that sense, he's not at all unlike the throngs of people who may not see themselves as racists even -as- they don the literal or metaphoric hood.

The amount of times I've heard "what's racist about that", though... spoken in earnest ...directly before or after the very definition of racism is communicated is..on the one hand, almost impossible for me to comprehend...but, on the other, an undeniably common occurrence. It's become a rule in my book that any comment directly preceding or following that question is effectively certain to be some of the most racist shit you'll ever hear. You can just stop a person before they even get to the meat and say "everything" with extremely high confidence.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Who here is the same person they were forty years ago?  Neeson's  desire to find and assault (or kill) an innocent person for the rape of a friend is reprehensible.  There isn't any possible defense for it.

But isn't it as least possible that, despite having racist feelings based on a single incident four decades ago, that Liam Neeson isn't a racist today?  As far as I know, he's not known for racist diatribes or anti-black online posts.  He's politically active both in the UK and the US, but his focus seems to be more on human rights and gun control than on race.

ONE racist incident in his mid-20s doesn't make Liam Neeson a racist.

Boru

[Acrobat]

Looking through the controversy about Liam Neeson's recent interview... wow.





Just so we're absolutely clear, the scenario he described of what he was thinking for about a week was nothing short of monstrous, and if he actually went through with his murderous fantasies on some unsuspecting black person, it would be utterly indefensible even if he actually found the guy who raped his friend. And yet, as he described it, he made abundantly clear that he was ashamed he ever thought like that. He's describing how he briefly gave in to the racism that most white people end up struggling with, whether consciously or unconsciously, and at least made the attempt at trying to overcome it.

And, of course, there's a lot of outrage about the whole thing. On the one hand, of course what he admitted to was horrible. But to find that for so many his remorse about the whole ordeal means nothing (the fact that he framed his realisation in terms of revenge and not race relations probably has something to do with it, but given that Northern Ireland, where this appears to have happened, is the whitest nation on Earth might explain why his immediate thoughts were on the futility of revenge in general than on the specific racial dimension) concerns me if only because, well, if you want to actually stem the tide of racism, maybe giving people some incentive to change (as opposed to decrying them even as they apologise and express remorse) might actually help with that. 

The more I look at it, the more obvious it becomes that the zero-tolerance approach that many take to situations like this seems counterproductive. And now, we keep running the risk of becoming Chuck McGill, sabotaging a former crook's attempt at reforming because of that past, and inadvertently making sure he no longer sees a point in becoming a better person.





Accountability for horrible deeds done by unrepentant assholes is one thing, but what will punishing someone for thoughts decades ago they knew were wrong before they acted upon them accomplish?

I remember when I was a kid, my friends were beat up by some racist white kids on the basketball court, and I remember I wanted to go around trying to find kids that looked like them ( white kids) , who even looked at me the wrong way.

It was a terrible reaction, but a pretty human one I think, so I don’t fault Liam for feeling the same way, particularly when reflecting on it, he recognizes it was a horrible reaction, and wasn’t justifying it.

It seems like in this day age, even being honest about things you regret can be held against you, that we all need to present and give the impression of being these perfectly decent creatures, void of any of the ugliness of being people.