My Thoughts on the Recent Liam Neeson Outrage

For those who are unaware of recent events, Liam Neeson has stated in an interview ‘I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody .. hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,’ another pause, ‘kill him.’

Liam Neeson whilst delivering an interview around his upcoming film ‘Cold Pursuit’ recounted an incident from ‘many years ago’ where a friend of his had been raped. He mentioned how he asked for a description of the man from the victim, a close friend, asking for his height, weight, build and race and found out the perpetrator was a black man. This is the context of the above quote of Liam Neeson.

Question is, was Liam Neeson right to have thoughts like that? Every individual has been created with certain qualities, and of them, one we have all been given is anger. Anger can be used for good and bad; it gives us courage in a situation where we need it most. However it is a snap emotion which occurs in the moment and can lead to dire consequences. Liam Neeson went on to admit ‘I’m ashamed to say that’ and ‘It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that.’ He further mentioned ‘But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing,’ you know?’

Liam Neeson has admitted to having racist thoughts but in my opinion his thought are not justified, but they are understandable in the world we live in. We’re bought up in a world where we’re lead to believe every black man is a thief and every Muslim is a terrorist. Further Liam Neeson has admitted to being wrong and corrected his thoughts after a couple of weeks which is more than can be said for many who harbour racist thoughts in their hearts for years.

I think this interview is admirable. He has come out and admitted to being having wrong thoughts but has realised his mistake and corrected his thoughts before his actions had a consequence. What are your thoughts on the interview? Feel free to comment below.

Yasin Desai

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