Michelle Rodriguez
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
In February 2019, actress Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and the Furious, Lost) publicly defended her Widows co-star Liam Neeson, who was facing intense criticism for comments he made while promoting Cold Pursuit. In the interview, Neeson described how, roughly forty years earlier, a close friend had been raped. He said he asked her about the attacker’s race and was told that the man was Black. Neeson then recounted: “Then after that I went out deliberately into black areas of the city looking to be set upon so I could unleash physical violence and I did it maybe four or five times until I caught myself on and it really shocked me, this primal urge I had…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’ (Neeson provides air quotes with his fingers) would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.” Although Neeson said he was not racist and was ashamed of his urge for racial vengeance, he faced intense scrutiny because he had gone into the streets hoping for a violent confrontation with a Black man. Rodriguez rejected the criticism of Neeson, arguing that his intimate scene with Viola Davis in Widows proved he was not racist. She said: “It’s all f—-ing bulls—. Dude, have you watched Widows? His tongue was so far down Viola Davis’s throat. You can’t call him a racist ever. Racists don’t make out with the race that they hate, especially in the way he does with his tongue so deep down her throat. I don’t care how good of an actor you are. It’s all bullshit. Ignore it. He’s not a racist. He’s a loving man. It’s all lies.” Rodriguez was then criticized for using an interracial screen kiss to dismiss concerns about racism and for overlooking the history of racist sexual violence. She later apologized for her insensitive statement, said she had defended a friend in the wrong way during a pressure-filled situation, and promised to learn and grow from the experience.
Key Apologia Strategies:
mortification, defeasibility, corrective action
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Transcript
Michelle Rodriguez Instagram Post:
To my friends and colleagues and my fans and community: I want to deeply apologize for my recent choice of words, and poor use of example, Rodriguez wrote in a Saturday Instagram post. In a pressure-filled situation, I defended a friend in the wrong way. I now realize how insensitive it was, and I had no intention of invoking such a terrible historical comparison. I have learned from this, and will grow from it. One love, MRod.
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