\"Sometimes you just scratch the surface and you discover this racism and bigotry and it's there,\" he added on \"GMA.\"
\"Would you have had the same reaction if your friend had said it was a white man? Would you have wanted to go out and kill?\" Roberts asked Neeson on Tuesday.
\"Definitely,\" he responded.
Despite attempting to set the record straight, many people on social media and beyond were still shocked with the actor's original reveal.
\"I think he hasn't had a chance to really consider the impact his words have on black people,\" Hunter Harris, an editor at Vulture, told \"GMA.\" \"I'm not sure if he's so remorseful of telling the story or of the actual action of wanting to exact revenge, exact violence against a black person.\"
\"The View\" host Sunny Hostin didn't mince words, either, when she said hours after the \"GMA\" interview, \"What I can't understand is how you would go out and seek a random person of the same race to harm because that for me feels like a modern-day lynching.\"
Sheryl Underwood, the host of \"The Talk,\" pointed to the impact Neeson's admission could have, especially with it being Black History Month, but also commented on Neeson's intention to start a broader conversation.
\"We appreciate that he said something really real, and he wants the United States of America to face what we won't discuss,\" she said on her show.
Former English football star John Barnes told Sky News that Neeson was talking about revenge and that \"being brought up in Northern Ireland, he understands how destructive that can be.\" He added that it should be taken into account that he was \"ashamed and horrified by the way he felt.\" He said Neeson was more focused on revenge than race.
But still, others are not letting Neeson off the hook.
\"It was easier for Liam Neeson to admit he wanted to commit hate crimes against Black people than it was to accept being called a racist,\" comedian and filmmaker Hari Kondabolu tweeted.
Activist Tariq Nasheed also said, \"If a Black actor said he wanted to get revenge on random white people because of the injustices done by people who believe in white supremacy, he would be labeled a Black Identity Extremists and he would be placed on every FBI watch list. He would not be praised like Liam Neeson.\"
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