Liam Neeson is not a racist. Saying that he is would be putting him in the same category as well-known racists and that comparison is simply ridiculous.

The recent scandal involved an interview Neeson had with “The Independent” about his role in the upcoming film “Cold Pursuit” and has set Twitter users off like all race related news tends to do.

During the interview, Clémence Michallon, writer at the The Independent, asked Neeson how he was able to “tap into his character’s need for revenge.”

Neeson responded by telling the story of his friend’s rape and the anger that incited within him after hearing her description of the culprit as a “black man.”

Filled with anger, Neeson confessed that at the time he wanted to kill the next black person he saw and actively sought confrontation for about a week after hearing his friend’s story.

“I went up and down 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,” Neeson said during the interview.

This is the quote that has riled up so many people over the past few days.

All over Twitter, people are calling him racist and full of excuses, according to follow-up story by “The Independent.” Neeson did try to redeem himself through a second interview, this one with Robin Roberts, co-host on Good Morning America.

He continued to repeat that he was not racist and explained that he grew up in Northern Ireland during the ‘Troubles,’ a period of political violence that involved the six north-eastern counties of Ireland and included an armed insurgency against the state.

Neeson explained that seeing the young men that participated in this conflict full of hate and ready to stand for the injustice they were facing incited something within him in this circumstance to do the same.

There have been a few people that have come to Neeson’s defense and think it’s a pretty normal response to have.

The meaning behind Neeson’s story was completely overlooked by this whole controversy. Neeson told this story because he believes revenge is never the answer.

“I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing,”  Neeson said in his interviews with “The Independent.”

Michallon, the interviewer, chose the wrong focus to her story. In her coverage of the interview, she focused on the ‘racist’ comment.

She wrote this article with the intent to start a conversation. It’s a shame really that she disregarded the true message here.

Hate leads to more hate.

Neeson knows that better than most and not because of the countless roles of revenge obsessed men he’s played. He knows because he felt that hate once.

True, pure hate.

He isn’t the first person to have felt this and I’m positive he isn’t the first person to wish they acted on it. He never actually hurt anyone and went to find help soon afterward.

He was ashamed by what he felt, before the good people of America started telling him he should be. That deserves recognition.