To Forgive Is Also Human -- But Leaves One With Little To Rage About On Social Media
I know firsthand what it's like to be judged not as an individual but attacked because of a group one falls into. My family's Jewish and I grew up in a neighborhood that was about 99 percent non-Jewish. When I was a little kid, horrible neighborhood kids egged our house and wrote "Dirty Jew" in shaving cream on our garage door, and one of the neighbor ladies "complimented" my mother with "You're not like the other Jews." (Wow -- how lovely.)
Then, in junior high school, I was bullied -- physically attacked -- by a group of older and bigger anti-Semitic girls. To the credit of one of them, she later apologized to me -- via email, after my column started running in a Detroit alt weekly and she spotted it and my email address. I accepted her apology and actually felt good about it -- that she looked back and had remorse for what she'd been a part of.
Looking back, I think that girl fell in with a group and followed along -- a human thing. It caused me to be afraid and caused me a lot of emotional pain at the time, but I hold her apology now as a sort of channel change from the previous narrative -- and a very important one for me. In some small way, it allows me to make peace with it -- to recognize that somebody can look back and be ashamed of behavior to the point where they need to make good on it. It meant a lot.
This post, in case you haven't guessed, was inspired by the Liam Neeson story in the news. Jayme Deerwester writes in USA Today:
In a shocking new interview, "Taken" star Liam Neeson says he once sought revenge for a loved one's rape by searching for a black person to kill.During an interview with Britain's The Independent, the Irish Oscar nominee-turned-action star revealed that when he returned home from an overseas trip and learned a loved one had been raped, he went looking for revenge.
"There's something primal - God forbid you've ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions," he said before launching into the never-before-heard story.
"She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way," Neeson told the outlet. "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 went up and down areas with a (nightstick), hoping I'd be approached by somebody - I'm ashamed to say that - and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could - kill him."
Neeson, now 66, looks back at the incident with shame and regret.
It's by admitting past behavior and recognizing that it was wrong and why that we behave in better ways in the future -- and maybe set an example for others with similarly ugly beliefs.
Of course, that's not how so many on social media see it -- "cancel Liam Neeson," they're all saying.
This girl gets it:
#LiamNeeson is disgusted at his past actions, admits it was wrong is fully repentant and yet everyone wants him cancelled! You know who should be cancelled, this absolute horror generation that doesn't believe in forgiveness or people's ability's to grow and regret past decisions
— Siobhan Bennett 💁🏻 (@shivversss) February 4, 2019
Another who gets it:
#LiamNeeson had a moral crisis after a close friend of his was raped. He confronted his own prejudice head-on, no one was hurt, and he came out a better man, realizing his behavior wasn't just. It takes integrity and courage to admit to such a controversial personal quandary.
— Luke (@MagnusElijah) February 4, 2019
And another:
On this whole #LiamNeeson thing, I hate that people are still demonizing him over something he did years ago. He realised his instincts got the better of him, he asked himself "What the fuck am I doing?" and he changed his behaviour. What more can you ask of anybody?
— Jorden Kelly (@JordenKelly) February 4, 2019
And here's Robert Smith from the USA Today comments:
It's just obscene. People claim to want "honest discussions" about race. Well, Liam Neeson just gave you one. He threw it all out there, warts and all, admitting his prior faults and current regrets, but it isn't enough. It will never be enough.
I am also Jewish and I never experienced antisemitism growing up, not even once. Though I am younger than you so maybe things where different back when you were a kid. Or maybe we grew up in different places. I only started seeing antisemitism online a few years ago. Most of this hatred toward Jews seems to come from Jewish hypocrisy. Many Jews will insist on open borders for white countries and closed borders for Israel. Also a lot of Jews seem to hate whites, for example a shocking amount of the articles in Huff Po, Salon, etc. attacking whites are written by Jews.
And my own expereince confirms this. I have seen more hatred from Jews towards whites than vice versa.
Do most Jews hate whites? No, but a large and vocal minority does. Why do I bring it up? Because I really believe that Jews can end almost all anti-semtism from non-muslim sources if they stop the anti-white hate and the diversity hypocracy.
Also Liam Neeson is an idiot. Killing somebody of the same race as another person who did a crime is stupid. It's not something you have to learn is stupid. It's self evidently stupid and evil. Again you don't have to be taught this, you should just know. A ten year old should be expected to understand this. The fact that Liam did not understand this when he was past his teens is amazing and worrying. Maybe he should not lose his career, but I wouldn't want him at my parties or babysitting my kids.
Jewish Cat at February 5, 2019 1:11 AM
Perhaps it should be called, anti-social media.
Jay at February 5, 2019 2:19 AM
Like black people never, ever, ever, ever demonize all white people for things that they not only haven't done, but for institutions that were eradicated before the white people of today were even born.
Patrick at February 5, 2019 3:03 AM
Liam Neeson was open about something he didn't have to be open about and expressed horror about it. I admire him for it.
Amy Alkon at February 5, 2019 5:09 AM
How lucky for him he didn't run into any!
NicoleK at February 5, 2019 6:11 AM
Meh, hard to be sad when a progressive ends up in the progressive firing line.
I have no issue with people learning and growing and evolving, but God knows progressives do. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
Momof4 at February 5, 2019 6:44 AM
I want to "cancel Liam Neeson" for other reasons.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 5, 2019 7:27 AM
Damn, there goes my dreams of him replacing Sir David Attenborough as the narrator voice for nature documentaries.
Sixclaws at February 5, 2019 9:57 AM
Maybe he should have kept all that to himself.
I. Emma Lefty at February 5, 2019 10:44 AM
Neeson felt a blind, killing rage. That's normal. I hope he didn't apologize for that.
Afterwards, he put himself out there. He wasn't going to kill just any black person. Just one who "had a go", which meant that the peaceful black people he passed on the street were safe. A criminal attack would justify the response.
His sin, if sin it be, was that he wanted revenge, which is not universally a bad idea, and he wanted to visit it on somebody who would attack an innocent person, which, when you think about it, is not a bad idea.
Nobody is forced to attack him.
Richard Aubrey at February 5, 2019 11:06 AM
" Though I am younger than you so maybe things where different back when you were a kid. "
'Back when you were a kid'. Honestly, fuck off with that ageist bullshit.
You really should get out more, visit the small towns with no minorities, free to voice every shitty fear they can imagine with no repercussions because there are no Jewish or black people to tell them to STFU.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 5, 2019 12:05 PM
"Damn, there goes my dreams of him replacing Sir David Attenborough as the narrator voice for nature documentaries." BBC is already using Cumberbatch...
""Though I am younger than you so maybe things where different back when you were a kid.'"
'Back when you were a kid'. Honestly, fuck off with that ageist bullshit.
You are confused at best, if you meant to write that. If you don't think there are differences across time, perhaps you should read more.
Ask someone who has seen a "whites only" drinking fountain, and go find one today.
Radwaste at February 5, 2019 4:13 PM
"It's not something you have to learn is stupid. It's self evidently stupid and evil."
This part, I disagree with. The original human social structure was the tribe, and because of it, humans evolved with an inborn fear of people who are different from their own tribe. When we aimed for higher forms of civilization, this was something that we had to un-learn, along with primitive sexual behaviors. But evolution isn't that quick to catch up, so we still have those in-born behavior patterns, and we have to be taught otherwise.
Cousin Dave at February 5, 2019 4:43 PM
Having said that, if I were Neeson, I would have kept my mouth shut about this. With today's trash media, there was nothing good that could have come out of talking about it. Remember, don't talk to cops or journalists.
Cousin Dave at February 5, 2019 4:46 PM
"If you don't think there are differences across time, perhaps you should read more."
Blaming entropy is no excuse.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 5, 2019 6:57 PM
Forgiveness and toleration were good ideas when both sides practice them. But those who maliciously and falsely call every Republican a racist and Nazi and every man toxic and "pro-rape" have chosen to be at war with humanity. Bring it.
jdgalt at February 6, 2019 9:30 PM
Jewish Cat: "Also Liam Neeson is an idiot. Killing somebody of the same race as another person who did a crime is stupid. It's not something you have to learn is stupid. It's self evidently stupid and evil. Again you don't have to be taught this, you should just know. A ten year old should be expected to understand this."
Agreed, but another problem is that anyone was listening to Liam Neeson and other actors, actresses, and sports stars in the first place. His profession is memorizing and reciting lines written by others. Anyone who confuses doing that well with knowledge or intelligence is an idiot.
markm at March 16, 2019 6:42 AM
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