Liam Neeson has come under fire based on remarks he made during an interview about taking revenge against black men.
Neeson described a time when a friend of his was brutally raped by a black man and he went out in the streets at night hoping a black man would approach him for a fight.
Neeson admits that this incident was 40 years ago and he came to his senses after a couple weeks and sought help through the church and close friends.
This is a good opportunity for open discussion. Many people can act like they don’t have biases but everyone does. If they went through a traumatic experience they may have a similar reaction.
HOWEVER, the important piece missing from his first interview was “how did he seek help”, “how did he learn from that incident,” and “what was the teachable moment.” The story alone actually serves no purpose. Had Neeson said “I would like to let people know that was wrong then, it’s wrong now, I want to use this moment to educate, etc.” then it would have been a great teachable moment. He could have kept this story to himself. This was not the best move consider his new movie had not hit theaters yet.
Check out Neeson’s interview with Robin Roberts.