What Liam Neeson’s confession reveals about random acts of violence against marginalized people
Liam Neeson has become the face of the modern vigilante film genre. Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood had these roles on lock in the ’70s and ’80s. In these films, the main character is a white male who has witnessed a violent act against someone close to them. They then proceed to exact violent personal revenge on anyone connected to the original crime. Neeson, a 66-year-old Irish actor, has risen to superstar status based on his ‘Taken’ trilogy (2008, 2012, 2015) and has a new revenge flick due out soon, ‘Cold Pursuit’. He was actually promoting this film last month in an interview with The Independent newspaper in Britain. It was during this interview that he admitted to certain thoughts that I would like to build on in this blog. Let me preface this by saying that I empathize with wanting to hurt a specific person who has caused pain to someone I care about. This seems like an instinctive human response. The main focus of this blog is the ripple effect of RANDOM acts of violence towards marginalized populations in society. When we judge, harass, assault and murder people who we have no connection to.
In his interview with The Independent, Liam Neeson was describing a vigilante-type situation that happened to him in the past. A female friend of his had been raped by someone. Neeson was upset by this and wanted to do something as a response:
“But my immediate reaction was to ask did she know who did it? No. What color were they?”
So he started to carry a cosh with him at night [see pic below]
“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 I could…kill him!”
Firstly, I do appreciate the honest revelation that Neeson shared with the public. This is my same sentiment towards President Donald Trump because I feel admitting, showcasing racist thoughts at least gets us past the denial stage as a society. Racist, sexist, homophobic thoughts and actions do exist in 2019. Period. Now we can at least have a discussion about these destructive elements of human existence and how they are oppressing certain people.
I have recently been thinking deeply about what it means to be privileged and non-privileged in North America. In my present role at a Canadian university, I am emersed in trying to create a positive experience for every student on campus…no matter who they are. We are often talking about safe spaces. To this end, I started to focus on the lives of those who fear for their safety in everyday life: Women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. The prevalent fear that these populations have is of unprovoked, random acts of violence and aggression. Walking home at night, shopping at the mall, driving their cars, sitting outside during school breaks, etc. This thought process was illuminated with Neeson’s personal confession that he was out at night looking to commit violence against a RANDOM black man…not the one that had raped his female friend. This is the disturbing part that connects to the list below:
> Missing and murdered indigenous women
> Gay club shootings
> Mosque shootings
> Racial profiling by police
> Stranger sexual violence against women
> Public harassment of Muslim citizens
If we focus on basic Human Rights, article 3 of the UN declaration reads “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. Article 5 states “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. So, every citizen should be free to go about their day without the fear of randomly being abused, assaulted or murdered. Period!
To circle back to my thoughts about power and privilege (which folks like Jordan Peterson deny even exist), it seems to me the less you have to worry about random acts of macro and micro aggressions…the more societal privilege you possess. This thought links back to my previous blog about blind spots. Those who go through their day not fearing anything should consider that a privilege. What women, the queer community and the non-whites have been saying for decades is that they have a legitimate fear of random acts of discrimination and violence. Liam Neeson’s confession that he roamed the streets looking to perpetrate this act of random violence against any black man is functional. It can act as a catalyst to have honest, courageous conversations that can serve to make life outside of everyone’s home a safer place to exist.
