There's a lot to unpack, no doubt.
No-one's debating whether his previous actions were racist I don't think. They clearly were. The issue is, as Dowbo brings up, the idea of rehabilitation.
My own views are that we're not at that stage as yet. Firstly, Neeson's comments when viewed in context are monumentally stupid. Not since Kevin Spacey used his coming out as some sort of defence against sexual assault has there been a celebrity who has planted their foot so wrongly. This was a completely unforced error; one of my central issues with the comments was that Neeson, on some level, thought this story was an appropriate this to say in order to market a movie. Because that's what he was doing; using a racist story to illustrate his similarity to the revenge seeking character he is once again playing.
Secondly, as far as I know he's not apologised. He used an appearance on GMA to state he's not a racist while not really apologising for being racist. He's not apologised for bringing the story up, more importantly, nor admitted how utterly inappropriate that was. He's admitted his actions were racist, but he hasn't come out and said sorry for dragging them up. Rehabilitation can only occur once sought, and as far as I can see Neeson hasn't reached out for it yet.
Then there's this:
Neeson clarified that he asked his loved one about the rapist's other attributes – besides race – and said that if she had been assaulted by a white man, he would've have the same reaction.
"If she has said an Irish, or a Scot, or a Brit, or a Lithuanian, I know I would've felt the same effect. I was trying to... stand up for my dear friend in this terrible medieval fashion.
This is a classic case of misunderstanding what racism actually is and how it's different to, for example, calling white old men 'gammon.' None of the groups he mentions, well first off none of them are races they're nationalities, but none of them have a cultural and historical record of discrimination against them. Generally, and this is very generally, when people talk about European nationalities the way Neeson is here they're referring to white people and white people are the oppressors not the oppressed. Trying to wheedle out of racist comments by saying "I'd have done it to a white man too!" is not only stretching believability but it's an ignorant comparison to make.
And again, in the GMA interview the fact that he was able to just spout this racist story in, what he thought at the time, was a PR interview, is not mentioned. On some level, he thought it was acceptable to admit he once wanted to kill a black man, any black man. Even admitting that these actions were wrong is moot as the words were still said.
It's a big old bowl of stupidity and ignorance, and he's got a long way to go before people are going to forget this I think.
Also, apropos of nothing, my utter disagreement with almost everything RockPaperShotgun's John Walker says continues: