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)

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