Liam Neeson race row - he wanted to kill a black man!

JunglistE said:
I agree with the bit in bold for the most part. He should be commended for changing but I think praise is a bit too strong of a word. I don't think any decent person should harbour any racist feelings from the word go. Racism is taught. But, the important bit is that he has reflected on this and knows it was wrong.
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Praise is the wrong word I agree. It's just more that I think there needs to be something of a balancing act of attack/defence of his actions. The racist bit is bad, the realisation and fixing of it is good. If he isn't commended for the latter then there isn't much hope of ever reforming people with racist thoughts.

I was brought up in a pretty racist household and it wasn't until I was old enough to mingle with others and actually have an independent life and mind that I understood all the bigotry I grew up around was completely wrong. I no longer speak to father because of his bitter and twisted mind an this matter amongst some other reasons, but my life is better without that crap in it as challenging him on his thoughts became such a drain.

Therefore, because I had those thoughts at some point in my life I am to be tossed aside and forever classed as a racist despite never acting on those ill judged feelings that were implanted though my upbringing?
 
Fubsy said:
I was brought up in a pretty racist household and it wasn't until I was old enough to mingle with others and actually have an independent life and mind that I understood all the bigotry I grew up around was completely wrong. I no longer speak to father because of his bitter and twisted mind an this matter amongst some other reasons, but my life is better without that crap in it as challenging him on his thoughts became such a drain.

Therefore, because I had those thoughts at some point in my life I am to be tossed aside and forever classed as a racist despite never acting on those ill judged feelings that were implanted though my upbringing?
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Good post, and you absolutely should not be forever classed as a racist, and nor should Neeson as I doubt he's been racist for many years, otherwise he wouldn't have appeared in 'Widows' where he has a black wife (opening shot, him graphically kissing her), mixed race son and worked for a black director.

But anyone trying to claim that he wasn't racist at the time, and that he was in a week long "Psychotic breakdown" is clearly talking ****. Lots of part-time psychiatrists on the forum apparently.
 
Freakbro said:
No one is talking about him being angry, they are explaining his actions as a "moment of rage" a "crime of passion" which is losing control of your actions in the heat of the moment - so no, that would not stand up as an excuse since it lasted a week.

The same way you can justifiably kill someone in self defence if they break in to your house and you feel your life is threatened. You can't chase that person down the street to kill them or find out where they live and kill them days later just because you're still angry about it and write it off to a justifiable action.

Let alone go out and want to kill a random innocent person because you are still angry about the actions of someone else
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I don't recall anyone saying it was a valid defence for breaking the law?

It was just an example of picking a group of people to blame for the actions of one. The can be based on may aspects, race, religion, gender, sport team, sexual perference, job, what road vehicle they use, ect.
This is done by lots of people when something bad happens. You know when a white police officer shoots a black man in the US, a lot some people blame all the police and will commit violent acts because of it? Are they going to labeled anti police for life?

And in this case he was waiting to abused first, not just attack a completely random person. But he wasn't abused, so it didn't happen.

Someone who is inherently racist wouldn't come to the conclusion they were behaving irrationally after a week. So he had an irrational thought blaming a group for the actions of one, and a week later came to his sences. If this group wasn't a race, but say a football supporter we wouldn't care.
 
Fubsy said:
Praise is the wrong word I agree. It's just more that I think there needs to be something of a balancing act of attack/defence of his actions. The racist bit is bad, the realisation and fixing of it is good. If he isn't commended for the latter then there isn't much hope of ever reforming people with racist thoughts.

I was brought up in a pretty racist household and it wasn't until I was old enough to mingle with others and actually have an independent life and mind that I understood all the bigotry I grew up around was completely wrong. I no longer speak to father because of his bitter and twisted mind an this matter amongst some other reasons, but my life is better without that crap in it as challenging him on his thoughts became such a drain.

Therefore, because I had those thoughts at some point in my life I am to be tossed aside and forever classed as a racist despite never acting on those ill judged feelings that were implanted though my upbringing?
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I really admire your strength of character! It can't be easy switching a mindset like that. Which is why I agree Neeson should be commended. I do think people are going after him a little too hard but I also see some people trying to justify what he said.

For whatever reason, right or wrong, he is going to feel this sting a bit though.
 
wolfie138 said:
sigh... two replies in a row from people who can't understand simple concepts. this is why the whole thing's blowing up in the first place. i bet more time was spent rushing out to find a link to a "funny" gif than actually reading and trying to understand the basic logic.
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Not really, no.

But if you can't see how targetting a specific demographic of people is not racist, then fair enough i guess.

Personally couldn't give a toss, he did something, nothing came of it thankfully, he learned from it. Some people aren't that lucky so he learned from that too as it could have gone a completely different direction.
 
JunglistE said:
I really admire your strength of character! It can't be easy switching a mindset like that.
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It wasn't hard to pull back from, it was natural to realise the BS i'd been surrounded by and reject it. It was never a mindset that I had formed myself, it was growing up with a person who constantly made remarks about people with other backgrounds, nationalities and skin colour and upon going out into the world myself realised he was just full of ****. However, I could easily see how people can get sucked in and people raised around that could have their mind so badly warped by it that there's little chance of return.

It's those people that have been sucked in that need the education and help to realise that the way they think can be destructive to themselves and innocent people they interact with.
 
Lock him up!

not for this specifically; more for all the dreadful movies he's made lately.
 
Fubsy said:
It wasn't hard to pull back from, it was natural to realise the BS i'd been surrounded by and reject it. It was never a mindset that I had formed myself, it was growing up with a person who constantly made remarks about people with other backgrounds, nationalities and skin colour and upon going out into the world myself realised he was just full of ****. However, I could easily see how people can get sucked in and people raised around that could have their mind so badly warped by it that there's little chance of return.

It's those people that have been sucked in that need the education and help to realise that the way they think can be destructive to themselves and innocent people they interact with.
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There was a Louis Theroux documentary on not too long ago about racism in america. Had this family on there teaching their young children to be Nazis, making them do salutes and sing songs about racism. Really sad cause those kids are going to grow up thinking it's right when it's no fault of their own. Was sad stuff, if it wasn't so interesting. Joke is, they actually seemed like a nice family, racist views aside. Was really bizarre.
 
JunglistE said:
There was a Louis Theroux documentary on not too long ago about racism in america. Had this family on there teaching their young children to be Nazis, making them do salutes and sing songs about racism. Really sad cause those kids are going to grow up thinking it's right when it's no fault of their own. Was sad stuff, if it wasn't so interesting. Joke is, they actually seemed like a nice family, racist views aside. Was really bizarre.
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Interestingly I have a brother who harboured these views (general xenophobic and pre-judging people based on their ethnicity) for a lot longer than I did due to the people he then fell in with at school. It took him falling out with them and being isolated from it for a while to realise toxic it was to his own mind and how dangerous it was, and has now pulled back completely from it and would consider him to no longer harbour those thoughts. You are right though, this **** starts in the home and the damage can be done without the kid doing anything wrong.
 
Mr Jack said:
Yeah, this. If anyone hasn't seen John Barnes being interviewed over this, it's a good watch. The whole thing is a classic example of the media divorcing things from their context and then creating a storm over their newly minted strawman.
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Why is it a good watch? Do you agree with his praise of Liam and his odd claim that Liam deserves a medal? Or is it just worth a watch because he happens to be black and is going against the main narrative on this story?
 
Fubsy said:
Interestingly I have a brother who harboured these views (general xenophobic and pre-judging people based on their ethnicity) for a lot longer than I did due to the people he then fell in with at school. It took him falling out with them and being isolated from it for a while to realise toxic it was to his own mind and how dangerous it was, and has now pulled back completely from it and would consider him to no longer harbour those thoughts. You are right though, this **** starts in the home and the damage can be done without the kid doing anything wrong.
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Same could be said for the overclockers forums from what I have read :D
 
Delvis said:
Not really, no.

But if you can't see how targetting a specific demographic of people is not racist, then fair enough i guess.

Personally couldn't give a toss, he did something, nothing came of it thankfully, he learned from it. Some people aren't that lucky so he learned from that too as it could have gone a completely different direction.
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his friend was attacked by a black scumbag. he went out looking for a black scumbag to get payback. he didn't go looking for any random black person. he didn't go looking for any random ethnic/religious type. he went specifically looking for the demographic that raped his friend. that's not racist. that's targetting exactly the type of person who was responsible. if you can't see that, then fair enough.
 
wolfie138 said:
his friend was attacked by a black scumbag. he went out looking for a black scumbag to get payback. he didn't go looking for any random black person. he didn't go looking for any random ethnic/religious type. he went specifically looking for the demographic that raped his friend. that's not racist. that's targetting exactly the type of person who was responsible. if you can't see that, then fair enough.
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He never once said 'black scumbag'. You're adding words to his mouth.
 
he's gone the full Mel Gibson

at some point I wonder if his brain was saying..ok just shut up now
 
wolfie138 said:
his friend was attacked by a black scumbag. he went out looking for a black scumbag to get payback. he didn't go looking for any random black person. he didn't go looking for any random ethnic/religious type. he went specifically looking for the demographic that raped his friend. that's not racist. that's targetting exactly the type of person who was responsible. if you can't see that, then fair enough.
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But why didn't he just go for a scumbag, of any colour? That is the point, he targeted a black scumbag, when he should have gone for a scumbag of any colour/race.
 
Apologies if this has been posted but I had a skim-through and didn't see it mentioned.

It seems that the film's New York premiere will now be a considerably more modest affair without the usual razamataz.

"Red carpet event for Liam Neeson's Cold Pursuit film premiere cancelled following racially charged rape revenge comments."

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-02-05...sial-comments-about-attacking-a-black-person/



 
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