‘I’mNOTaracist’

What was he thinking? This is the question on everybody’s lips after LIAM NEESON’s confession in a recent interview that he once prowled the streets armed with a weapon, looking for someone to attack as an act of revenge after a friend had been raped by a black man.

“I went up and down the 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 ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him,” the 66-year-old actor said.

Cue public outrage and a backlash on social media. The red-carpet premiere of Liam’s new movie, Cold Pursuit, was cancelled and some people were predicting the end of his career.

But others have come out in support of him – Trevor Noah included. The Daily Show host said Liam’s statement that his behaviour had shocked him, and his admission that he’d sought help to deal with his feelings of rage and bigotry, should’ve been unpacked.

And it would’ve been, Trevor said, “if it had been said to Oprah. Then there would’ve been a conversation and we would’ve seen it as a person admitting to a time in their life when they allowed their anger and hatred to fester into racism they were ashamed of.

“People are afraid to admit they had a racist thought because then society says, ‘You’re racist forever and that’s it.’ So there’s no value in atoning.”