05/02/2019
There is quite an uproar about the comments made by the actor Liam Neeson during an interview with a journalist on [insert date]. Whilst he has played roles in various genres of movies, he is perhaps best know for his roles in films like the Taken series, where he plays a character intent on saving a loved one and wreaking revenge on those who have attacked them.
His latest film is Cold Pursuit, in which he plays a father out for revenge against the people he holds responsible for the death of his son from a heroin overdose. During a series of press interviews, Neeson was asked about the character's ability to embrace his anger, he explained that something primal is triggered when someone close to you is a victim of violence. He then told a story about something that had happened some 40 years earlier.
Listening to a recording of the conversation, with Neeson's very recognisable voice explaining the story, it's almost possible to just think he was reciting lines as he has done in front of cameras so well over the years. However, it was evident that this was not just an unscripted confession, it was something he had not spoken about publicly before and something that has probably weighed heavily on his mind over the past four decades.
There is little doubt that Neeson's behaviour at the time has an underlying tone of racism. However, it would appear to have been at a point of extreme stress. At this point, we do not know who the victim of the rape was. I actually believe the identity of the individual who was raped is somewhat immaterial and should remain unknown. It has been said that the person is deceased and there is a risk that naming them may well cause further upset to those they left behind. There appears to no benefit in digging into the specific details of the rape case.
So, we should instead consider the situation that Liam Neeson found himself in his mid-twenties. The 1970s was a very different time to that in which we now live. There is little doubt that racism was more openly expressed during that time and that negative views about the moral fibre of people of different ethnicities were widely, but not universally, held.
Faced with the horror of finding out that someone close to him had been raped, and with the rapist having got away with it, Neeson was consumed with anger.
Having been told that the attacker was black, he took a weapon and walked the streets looking for a confrontation with someone. He didn't seek out a black man simply walking along the road. Instead, he went out walking the streets to expose himself to the potential for a black man to approach him aggressively and create a situation whereby he might seek retribution for his friend.
Fortunately, he didn't come across an aggressive black man.
A week or so later, perhaps having walked off a lot of his frustration and anger, he realised how wrong his behaviour was and he stopped.
He felt shame for what he was doing. And he stopped.
He did not actually assault anyone.
Was he wrong to have walked the streets with a cosh, looking for a confrontation and an excuse to inflict harm on someone, or maybe kill them? Of course he was. Is it surprising he felt driven to take such action? Not really.
This isn't, I believe, a case of outright racism. It is a situation where someone who was agonising about his failure to protect someone he cared about and therefore sought to take retribution against anyone he might be able to apportion blame against. He didn't know exactly who had raped his friend. He only knew that the alleged attacker was black.
Perhaps there is something within Liam Neeson that, knowing - subconsciously maybe - he couldn't be sure to find the individual who actually committed the crime, he didn't go further than walking the streets 'armed and dangerous'.
I'm not suggesting it was acceptable for Neeson to have gone out looking for someone to attack; or to be specific, looking for a black man to attack. It would have been no more, or less, acceptable if he had gone looking for any random man regardless of colour or ethnicity; simply blaming men in general for the awful attack on his friend.
Can anyone truthfully say that they have never had bad thoughts about a section of society due to their colour, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexuality or disability? I very much doubt it. I know that, having twice had to fight off unwanted approaches from paedophile men when I was aged around 12-14, I spent some time holding homophobic views. I now recognise that these homophobic views were completely illogical; paedophiles are typically (almost exclusively) heterosexual men, not gays.
This homophobia came to an end in my early 20s, when I found out that a close relative, someone who I loved and still love, was gay. Since that time, I have been lucky enough to have friendships with a number of gay, lesbian and transgender people. Some are relatives, some are friends and some are work colleagues from jobs I've had over the years. I care about these people and absolutely believe in inclusivity and stand against all forms of discrimination.
Some of the criticism of Neeson has been excessive and has ignored the actual truth. BBC News gave air time to a Los Angeles based magazine editor called Vas Morgan on Tuesday evening (a bit after 11:00 p.m. UK time). His comments suggested that Neeson had not expressed regret over his actions 40 years previously, which is clearly untrue. His calls for outrage and an impact on Neeson's career are not a solution or answer to what has happened. Vas Morgan compared it to the #MeToo movement and seemed to suggest that Neeson should face the same backlash as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. However, both Weinstein and Spacey actually physically assaulted multiple victims, abusing their position of power and fame.
Liam Neeson went out stomping the streets, full of frustration and ready to physically attack someone who might confront him. No such confrontation occurred and Neeson didn't attack anyone.
Weinstein and Spacey continued to commit their acts of sexual predatory behaviour over a number of years, abusing many individuals.
Liam Neeson didn't actually get to the point of attacking anyone. Having worked off his frustrations walking the streets, he came to his senses and stopped; showing regret for his attitude.
We don't know what would have happened if Neeson had come across a confrontational black man. Would he have used his cosh, or would his underlying human decency have prevented him from enacting his vengeance?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter.
Liam Neeson recognised that what he was doing was wrong, before it got to the stage of him committing a physical assault.
It's time to move on and concentrate on people who actually commit crimes, rather than those who considered doing so and realised it would be wrong.
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