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."
The only course for him is to sell everything he owns, use every cent to purchase farm land in 40 acre units, buy a herd of mules and then blow his brains out on MSNBC. In his will, it will be found that he gave all the land and a mule each to the descendants of the slaves he owned.
It's really the only way. Anything else would label him as a closet conservative. He could never return to Boston, and if he were a true Democrat, he'd take his family with him, since the slave owning stain is apparently genetic.
So what did they find in the woodpile?
If they took all the bad limbs off my family tree, it would look like a palm tree.
The usual suspects are once again talking about giving reparations to the descendants of American slaves. Now witness this scenario: what if you are an average white American, and you decided to go play around at Ancestry.com. And to your shock you found out that your great, great, great grandma was a black slave.
Even if you are an “enlightened liberal”, you would do everything in your power to hide that information. That’s just human nature.
And then this reparations thing becomes the Law Of The Land. All your racial pride goes right out the window. You will print out the paperwork and show it to the government officials to prove that you are entitled to a slice of the pie, because you had one black American ancestor.
I am a black descendant of American slaves, going back 350 years (yeah, I’ve been to Ancestry.com).
Y’all still owe me 40 acres and a mule. President Lincoln said so. Do you know what that’s worth in today’s economy?
You can keep the mule. But for my 40 acres, I’ll take two WalMarts and a Vegas Casino. Thank you very much.
Do you see how dumb this reparations issue is? :-)
Now we know who to tap when the subject of “reparations” comes up....
The sad part is .. what he missed.
While one member of his former family might have been a slave owner; HOW ABOUT THE REST OF HIS FAMILY WHO WERE NOT SLAVE OWNERS.
Why wasn’t he proud of that transition within his family - from slave owners to NOT BEING SLAVE OWNERS.
Amazing ..??????
Ping!
I found out a few years ago that my Yankee relatives had bought and owned some of the very first black slaves sold in the US. To the best of my knowledge, mom's side were all small farmers and never owned slaves (but they did fight for the South in the Civil War).
But what matters is what "I" do....not what remote ancestors did more than three centuries ago.
This guy is a total f()cking idiot. Just like there are no "slave owners" in America today, so goes it there are not actual "slaves" in America today.
Put your money where your sausage holster is Ben, you F.A.G.
I wrote PBS and lambasted them about the program. They wrote back with a jeremiad about how much responsibility Gates has to keep the program’s integrity and reputation in good stead with with show’s audience. Gee, he is trying to look good in front of 2.5 million people.
He is more Robin then Batman : )
I watched a show on NBC called “Who do you think you are.” One episode profiled Bill Paxton, who found out he had an ancestor who owned slaves, but he said you can’t apply contemporary points of view to what happened 300 years ago, and he said you have to take the good with the bad in you history. He seemed very intelligent.
Almost funny the way blacktivist democrats are doing all they can to equate slavery with Naziism. It’s the white guilt trip they won’t let die, could that be because it’s one of their industries and justification for their existence? Sniggering here...
So what? What a demented and absurd society we have become.
The “owned” slaves surely lived far better than their ancestors in the old country.
Please.
No wonder PBS has to suck at the taxpayer teat. Who the hell wants to watch a stupid ho about a moron’s family tree?
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