Overview

Liam Neeson Racist Revenge Story refers to actor Liam Neeson's account of his response to his friend's rape as a young man. In his words, Neeson explains that after learning that the assailant was black, he went looking for some "black bastard" to "kill." Neeson remarked on the story that he found his behavior at the time and today "horrible," but the interview began a backlash against the actor online.

Background

On February 4th, 2019, the news outlet The Independent^[1] interviewed Liam Neeson and Tom Bateman, the stars of the 2019 film Cold Pursuit, which they were promoting at the time. During the interview, Neeson expounded upon his acting roles in films about revenge, discussing a true story when he succumbed to the "primal" urge for revenge. He tells of a time when a friend was raped by a black male, which he attempted to find and kill. Furthermore, at the time of the incident, he explains that he began looking to fight and/or kill any black male that attempted to fight him. He says:

There’s something primal – God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions. I’ll tell you a story. This is true. I'm not going to use any names. I was away, and I came back, and [a female friend] told me she had been raped. But she handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way. But my immediate reaction was…I asked, 'did she know who it was?' 'No.' 'What color were they?' She said it was a black person. I've gone up and down areas, with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody. I’m ashamed to say that. And I did it for maybe a week, 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 kill him.

It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I've never admitted that, and I'm saying it to a journalist. God forbid[…]But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, 'What the fuck are you doing?'

Development

Online Reaction

Following the interview, some online expressed their disappointment and outrage about Neeson's interview. BuzzFeed ^[2] reporter Hannah Al-Othman tweeted, "'But my immediate reaction was I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.' Not how old were they? How tall were they? You just asked what colour were they? I don't care how sorry you are, Liam Neeson, that is disgusting." The tweet received more than 800 retweets and 3,600 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Journalist Narjas Zatat tweeted^[3] a thread about a story (shown below, center). They wrote:

"I’m really saddened by the fact that Liam Neeson’s (an actor I love) knee-jerk reaction to finding out his friend was raped was so similar to the colonialist – WAS HE BLACK? And then to demonise the entire black community. I don’t care if he was being flippant, and I understand that he’s remorseful of the shape of his thoughts all those years ago. He’s sorry. I get it. But it doesn’t change the fact that the way in which he reacted to his friend being raped is to carry a weapon and assume all black people are bad. This is exactly the kind of colonial mentality the likes of which AOC is fighting against. Black people in America were often falsely accused of criminal activity and then lynched. Lynchings would involve exactly the kind of misplaced, racist determination exhibited (now remorsefully) by Liam. This is the history he has reached into. And it’s really, really sad."

Others disagreed with the backlash, believing that Neeson was being honest about his prior actions and expressed regret about them. Twitter^[4] user @JonathanPieNews tweeted, "Liam Neeson in a heartfelt interview stated that an emotional trauma made him feel unjustly prejudiced against black people, but he came to his senses, realised his gross error of judgement, and learned from it. Social Media: Get the pitchforks, guys! Liam Neeson is a racist!" Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 2,500 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, right).

On February 4th, Redditor ^[5] howabouttits posted about the interview in the /r/entertainment subreddit. Within 24 hours, the post received more than 1,200 points (95% upvoted) and 650 comments.

Twitter replaced two Moments pages about the interview and controversy.^[7][8]

Neeson's Response to the Outrage

The following day, Neeson appeared on the morning television news and talk show Good Morning America.^[6] In an interview with host Robin Roberts, Neeson said that he was "not racist." He said:

I’m not racist. I was brought up in Northern Ireland. The Troubles. The Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. There was a war going on in the north of Ireland. I had acquaintances who were involved in the trouble. The bigotry. One Catholic would be killed, the next day a protestant would be killed. I grew up surrounded by that, but I wasn’t part of it. We all pretend we’re all politically correct. In this country and same in my own, sometimes you scratch the surface and discover this racism and bigotry, and it’s there.

I remember shooting Schindler’s List, and hearing remarks from drivers who were taking us to the set, thinking to myself, ‘Am I hearing this right, this guy is making anti-Jewish comments to me, a guy playing Schindler?’ Sometimes we’d see swastikas on walls painted by people who knew we were going to the set.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the story and controversy, including BBC,^[9] CNN,^[10] AV Club,^[11] The New York Times^[12] and more.

Search Interest

External References