According to the BBC, actor Liam Neeson had a close friend who was raped by a black man a few years ago, and in an interview promoting his new film Cold Pursuit, admitted to walking up and down the street, hoping to kill a black man to avenge the rape.
Neeson said the alleged rape took place a long time ago and he found out about it when he came back from a trip abroad. The actor went on to use racially offensive language about the attacker.
He said: “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 colour were they? She said it was a black person.
“I went 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 [uses air quotes with 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.”
As you can imagine, this set off a fire storm of criticism on the internet.
Liam Neeson being ready to take any Black life over what one person allegedly did just shows how meaningless and inconsequential black lives are to some.
Even him telling the story demonstrates a level of privilege and understating that there may not be repercussions.
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) February 4, 2019
What’s most disturbing about what Liam Neeson said is everything. But what’s particularly terrifying is the idea that the death of any other Black guy would satisfy the revenge quota to the clear indication is that he knows his whiteness would protect if he followed through on it
— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) February 4, 2019
Truly disturbing Liam Neeson set out to murder a Black person. Discussing on @GMB in a mo how blaming an entire group for the alleged crime of an individual is obscene racism. Who wants to watch his films now? Racists
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) February 5, 2019
This week in British racism so far… Liam Neeson blames Northern Ireland heritage for wanting a lynching, Tories complain about being deprived of racist slur "Paki", more black Brits being deported, black female professors being bullied & stereotyped. & it's only TUESDAY MORNING
— Afua Hirsch (@afuahirsch) February 5, 2019