Posted on 04/21/2015 6:25:10 PM PDT by presidio9
Ben Affleck went searching for his roots and ended up finding more than he bargained for.
And he admits it.
"After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for Finding Your Roots, it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was an owner of slaves," Affleck wrote on Facebook Tuesday, breaking his silence on the controversy kicked up by a leaked Sony email that revealed the actor specifically requested that that limb of his family tree be left out of his episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots.
"I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth," he continued.
"Skip [Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.] decided what went into the show. I lobbied him the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use. This is the collaborative creative process. Skip agreed with me on the slave owner but made other choices I disagreed with. In the end, it's his show and I knew that going in. I'm proud to be his friend and proud to have participated."
Gates and PBS had previously defended the choice to leave Affleck's slave-owning ancestry out of the episode, with Gates noting that he maintains "editorial control on all" of his projects and the network calling it "an independent editorial judgment."
Affleck, meanwhile, suggested that the show didn't have a journalistic responsibility to include everything that was discovered.
"It's important to remember that this isn't a news program," his post continued. "Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable. The assumption is that they will never be dishonest but they will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family.
"I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story. We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery. It is an examination well worth continuing. I am glad that my story, however indirectly, will contribute to that discussion. While I don't like that the guy is an ancestor, I am happy that aspect of our country's history is being talked about."
Meanwhile, PBS and WNET announced today that they are now conducting an internal review, led by their respective programming teams, into the "circumstances around" the Affleck episode, "Roots of Freedom."
"This matter came to PBS' attention on Friday morning, April 17," they said in a statement obtained by E! News. "Professor Gates and his producers immediately responded to our initial questions. In order to gather the facts to determine whether or not all of PBS' editorial standards were observed, on Saturday, April 18, we began an internal review. We have been moving forward deliberately yet swiftly to conduct this review."
His acting might be a bigger crime against humanity than slavery.
The rest of the country is quite tired of the "legacy of slavery" drama. It's a part of our history not to be ignored, but also not to be dwelt on to the exclusion of everything else.
Bears repeating
I used to know a guy who had an ancestor who was hanged as a horse thief. He told me that while laughing all the time. Everybody has skeletons in their ancestral history. So what?
I quite agree.
never mind the fact most all democrat family trees owned slaves at some point...
This from a guy who said he never met a Republican he ever liked and he would never watch a film with a Republican in it..Figures Ben ASSleck would be a douche, he has buttocks where his face should be
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh its only white Republicans who have to give money to blacks..the liberals don’t have to pay a dime
Probably afraid he’d have to pay reparations.
Ashamed much, Affleck?
My relatives were what at the time were affectionately referred to by the blacks as "patty-rollers".
I doubt there was much affection, but I digress.
Anyway, they spent their time keeping the slaves where they were supposed to be, based upon the law of the land at the time.
It doesn't bother me to know that, nor does it make me any less or more of a person to have had such relatives.
I also had relatives that served in both the Union and Confederate Armies, one reaching the rank of Brevet Major General.
But another one was just a private for three years.
How much shame should I feel and for which should I be ashamed?
No matter how I look at it, I am not liable for reparations either way, nor will I ever willingly consent to them.
I was not there, MORON!
And neither were you.
Methinks you doth protest too much.
And your acting sucks, too, by the way.
But that's another story.
Sometimes the stupidity is so thick, it is hard to realize that it is real.
There is probably not a person on the planet that does not have ancestors that both owned slaves and were slaves.
Slavery was a common institution in nearly all societies for many thousands of years. when the Europeans came to the Americas, slavery was already long established. Slavery was common in Africa, in Asia, in Europe, and in North and South America. I do not recall it being mentioned in Australia, specifically, but women were virtual slaves there before the Europeans came.
It is hard to keep male slaves when you are a nomadic hunter-gatherer society. Enemies that are vanquished are simply killed.
Affleck probably had an ancestor who couldn't spell, too. I believe "Affleck" is how the Socttish placename "Auchinleck" is pronounced. James Boswell, famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson, was Laird of Auchinleck.
Ben Affleck's family probably got their surname from Auchinleck. Maybe they were servants of one of the lairds of Auchinleck.
Affleck probably had an ancestor who couldn't spell, too. I believe "Affleck" is how the Socttish placename "Auchinleck" is pronounced. James Boswell, famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson, was Laird of Auchinleck.
Ben Affleck's family probably got their surname from Auchinleck. Maybe they were servants of one of the lairds of Auchinleck.
Affleck probably had an ancestor who couldn't spell, too. I believe "Affleck" is how the Socttish placename "Auchinleck" is pronounced. James Boswell, famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson, was Laird of Auchinleck.
Ben Affleck's family probably got their surname from Auchinleck. Maybe they were servants of one of the lairds of Auchinleck.
His slave owner ancestor would likely be ashamed of prima donna Ben!
What a PC fraud.
It’s utterly idiotic to be embarrassed about what some ancestor did. No one has any control over the past.
That said, my DNA analysis at Ancestry.com shows that I have African ancestry, of the Bantu tribe. About a third of the American slaves were Bantu. Doesn’t this mean that Ben owes me reparations?
Yep.
Absolutely. PAy those reparations!! He should volunteer to pay everything he has to the Free Al Sharpton fund. It’s the least Ben can do. It’s not his money, it’s slave money.
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