…both as tragedy and as farce…
Growing up in Germany, I never understood how it was even possible that neo-Nazis existed.
Now a neo-fascistic party is in state and federal parliament.
The point of the story Neeson told is that such behaviour needs a certain systematic basis. Bias, prejudice, systematic racism, etc… At the time, he obviously didn’t reflect what he was doing, and why.
Without being remotely in such situations myself, in the foreseeable future, I hope I can reflect on what I am doing, and not doing…
Does it say that? While I would never respond that way, the desire to exact vigilante justice in the world when someone you love has been traumatically wronged is a thing. A dangerous, poisonous thing, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t care about her pain. This is why we’re trying–so hard, trying–to deprogram toxic masculinity. Because to some men, his actions look exactly like caring (and inaction would seem unthinkable to them).
Agreed.
You say that like it proves your point, but it’s the opposite.
Minorities exiting NI don’t prove that NI was a post-racial utopia. Especially if they’re avoiding an open culture of anti-immigrant and minority hostility, that included techniques of ethnic cleansing, and that’s how NI was kept 99% white. You think that happened without anti-minority violence? Do you think every Pakistani kid born in Belfast was able to stay?
Low incoming immigration levels don’t guarantee that people aren’t initiating violence based on their racist anxieties. “Anti-immigrant violence” can happen in places where there are no immigrants in reach at all, as long as you have hopped-up bigots and something to hit.
Based on the way this discussion is going, I want to remind everyone of something:
Even Liam Neeson knows what he did back then was very, very wrong. And it is because it was wrong, and because he is ashamed of it, that he was sharing it.
Of course he was being racist. Of course he was wrong to look to just hurt someone for hurting his friend. That is what he is trying to say, and it isn’t easy to admit that he fucked up, and got lucky that he didn’t get the chance to fuck it up even further.
Editing to add: I for one am applauding him now for talking about it, for having the courage to admit his regret. Compare this to how the governor of Virginia is having trouble admitting that he went in blackface, for example. We need to encourage people to talk about past fuck-ups, damn it!
I do think he should get to the point where he’s un- normalizing racism before he gets a whole cookie.
It still feels like “I’m personally lucky I didn’t find someone to lynch.” Like he’s apologizing for almost being violent, but not for being racist in the first place.
If someone told me, “I almost punched your grandfather in the face, but I stopped myself at the last minute,” I don’t think there’d be a slow building clap for it.
It’s also hard to give him full credit for words that don’t address racism at all, "It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing’, you know? I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing.”
And, as context, the admission was given on a promotional tour for this;
That seems, well, counterproductive. If we keep grousing that it’s not good enough, that he hasn’t apologised enough, then that just sets up a negative feedback loop. It’s a very discouraging attitude there.
Besides, I am a little peeved by the whole “get a cookie” idiom that frames it as if he was doing it for a reward, rather than unburdening. It cheapens all attempts to come clean if you are constantly being accused of only doing it for the cookie. Perhaps some do “come clean” just for the attention, but let’s not make that our default assumption.
You know what’s counter-productive?
Looking for someone to murder in a racist rage.
It doesn’t look like he’s even apologised for being racist yet. Maybe we can wait for that before deciding if he’s apologized for being racist enough.
(And sorry to any racists who were just about to confess to homicidal plans, but stopped themselves because I’m not thankful enough for Liam Neeson’s bravery.)
Postscript: It looks like he doesn’t consider going to a black neighborhood over multiple days to see if there’s a way to kill a random black person, to be racist.
I think that’s an uncharitable reading. I don’t know, Neeson could be equally shamed by his youthful racism or even still be a racist, but he was asked about violence so he spoke about the violent aspect of that period of his life. Perhaps he would have given more weight to the racism if he’d been asked a question about that, or recounted an entirely different anecdote.
Law enforcement officers
to add to the list
Liam Neeson should be careful of who he attacks, he could be attacking himself.
Neeson is starting to give additional interviews.
Edit: see @tuhu 's link below, less jacked up.
Unfortunately there don’t seem to be full transcripts. But this seems to be his full appearance on Good Morning America
He’s saying he wanted to “kill for honor” an “innocent black man”, because he blamed a whole race for what happened to his friend.
He might not judge himself racist now, but he’s also making a bizarre claim that he wasn’t racist then, because he would have put the blame on another nationality (and then presumably want to kill a different innocent person based on their race or nationality)?
All he had to do was say that wanting to kill an innocent someone based on their race, is racist. He’ll get rightfully dragged until he figures that out.
(Wow, 6:54 - 7:07)
Is there a video there, because I keep getting a prompt to download an mp4 video when I click on this thread.
It’s the TODAY show interview, it’s about 8 min long. The interviewer really tried to take the shovel out of his hand, but he wasn’t getting it. Rationalization-city.
Here’s a different link?
I was more concerned with the fact that I keep getting a prompt to download it…
He also said this in not so direct reference to himself:
“We all pretend we’re all politically correct in this country… in mine, too. You sometimes just scratch the surface and you discover this racism and bigotry and it’s there.”
This is all very clumsy. But it’s fairly clear what he’s trying to do.
ABC news’ web site is trash. I have a friend who works over there, and we’ve all yelled at her for it. Unfortunately that was the only complete interview I could find quickly.
There’s also a shorter one out there with Kelly rippa and Ryan seacrest. It’s a little clearer, but shorter and much more entertainment news bullshitty.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
