- Yes, sir.
- What do I think of Liam
Neeson's recent admission
that he was, well, I think,
it's really difficult
because in many ways it feels
like an onslaught, you know?
I can understand, for any
black person out there
to just be like, this shit
never seems to end, right?
You think you get past
the age of lynching,
and then there's still
blackface in 2019.
You know, you hear stories
every day about black people
who are persecuted just because
of the color of their skin.
Black Lives Matter
exists as a hashtag
because of that very reason.
I do think, though,
the Liam Neeson story,
most of it is treated
the way it is, because of
how he told the story and
where he told the story.
I think if Liam Neeson had
told that story on Oprah,
and there was like
a conversation,
we would have seen it
as a person admitting
to a time in their
life when they allowed
their anger and hatred to fester
into a racism that
they're ashamed of.
Then it would be like,
'cause then you'd have
someone on the opposite side,
Oprah would be
like, "Why, Liam?"
And he'd be like, "I don't
know, Oprah, I don't know.
"It was so horrible, Oprah."
And she'd be like,
"Come here, Liam,
"no, you know what
you," and he's like,
"It was so bad,
Oprah, it was so bad."
But we never had that.
So all it was was Liam
Neeson was talking
about a movie about revenge,
the next thing, in
the middle of it,
he goes, "I know what it's like.
"A friend of mine got raped,
I asked her who did it.
"She said she doesn't know,
"she just knows it
was a black guy.
And I went out into the streets,
hoping that some black bastard"
and he put it in
quotes, you know?
And he went, "Some black
bastard would step out
"and start something with me
so that I could kill him."
The headline, obviously,
is "Liam Neeson:
'I Walked the Streets Looking
for a Black Person to Kill'"
which is what he said,
but not technically
what he was saying, right?
And I think also,
I'm gonna be honest,
I think a lot of
people take the story
a little bit more seriously
because it's Liam Neeson,
because people see
him as the Taken guy.
If like Tom Hanks
said the same thing,
"I walk the streets for,"
black people would be
like, "Really, Tom Hanks?"
(audience laughing)
"Really, Tom Hanks?"
People would be like "Yo man,
we gonna kick your ass man yo.
We gonna Bubba Gump yo ass."
Tom would be like -
like I think part of it is that.
It has a certain weight
that it wouldn't have
if it weren't for Liam Neeson.
I do think it was a
powerful admission though.
I hope he and people
who hear the story
understand the gravity
of what he's saying
and that is, if
you're not careful,
you can have inside
of you, a hatred
that is encouraged or
grown by the society
that you live in, and
you don't even realize
how disgusting that idea is.
I think it was cool that he said
he looked for help afterwards.
I think it was cool
that no one bust him,
he volunteered the information.
I think it was great
that he was ashamed.
So for me, that's the
world I want to live in.
I want to live in a world where
a person who says
something like that
is ashamed of it and
they're telling it to you,
not you catching them out.
On the other hand, I
hope he understands
'cause I saw him
afterwards saying,
"I'm not racist, I'm
not racist at all,
"it wasn't racism."
Like no, no, no, I understand
why you would say that
but it is, it is racist.
That is racism that
you have, the fact that
you think you can just go
out and kill a black man,
like you're gonna
kill any black man,
for what a black
man might have done,
is a form of racism,
'cause you're going
the whole race
should be condemned.
So you should be able
to accept and be like,
yes, I was thinking
a racist thought.
But a lot of the time,
I find people afraid to
admit that they ever
had a racist thought,
because then society says
you are racist forever
and then that's it.
So there's no value
in atoning, I guess.
And he keeps going out and
giving more interviews that
make it worse, I'm
like why do you,
like the things that
he says, I'm just like
clearly your particular
set of skills
doesn't include
shutting the f**k up.
(laughter)
(energetic music)
