Posted on 06/25/2015 8:47:52 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
In January 2014, Henry Louis Gates Jr. was over the moon.
Mr. Gates, a Harvard professor and public intellectual, had just finished an interview with the actor and director Ben Affleck for the second season of his PBS show, “Finding Your Roots.” The show investigates the ancestries of celebrities like Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba, and Mr. Affleck was apparently a dream guest.
“We filmed him Tuesday morning, and it was brilliant!” Mr. Gates wrote in an email to his friend Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, on Jan. 15 last year. “In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he is getting Matt Damon to do it, too, so that we can start the series (if this works out) with the two of them as the first guests. But it went very, very well.”
Mr. Damon did not appear on the show’s second season, and six months later, those good feelings were a distant memory. Mr. Affleck became frustrated that his interview on “Finding Your Roots” included a discussion about a slave-owning ancestor of his named Benjamin Cole. Mr. Gates worried that if they cut that detail, it would be perceived as censorship.
By the time WikiLeaks posted a trove of hacked Sony emails two months ago, Mr. Gates’s correspondences were revealed, and his worst fears came true. Mr. Affleck had lobbied Mr. Gates to omit the part about the slave-owning ancestor. Mr. Gates had chosen not to include it. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let me see if I can find any sympathy for Ben Affleck.
Nope.
I’ve been doing the family tree thing for almost five years. I’ve known from the beginning that you have to be prepared for finding absolutely anything. To take an iconic phrase and add to it, you have to be prepared for the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, and the totally bizarre from another planet. If you aren’t, DON’T DO IT!
Apparently Affleck wasn’t.
What a shallow twit. It shows how superstitious, emotive and irrational leftists are.
How can we have Affleck- in movies when he’s a symbol of slavery? They need to be banned.
We should keep piling on the insanity until they crack
I have an ancestor who was a slave in MASS...a white slave..
Her father was the first documented criminal in MASS Colony..stealing corn and grain during starving times..
she was made a slave at age 7 to pay for his crimes..he had been whipped and paid his dues and been banished to New York Colony years before she was free again..
He may have dwelt on the consequences of being outed as a slave-owner descendant until he had nightmares, anxiety attacks and turned to alcohol and pills.
They should’ve has asked their Starbuck’s Barrista what to do.
I was actually very surprised to find out my family owned slaves. I always assumed I was descended from poor white trash farmers, but Ancestry.com has a scan of my great+++ grandfather’s will, in which he wills his “negroes” to one of his sons, not my grandfather in 1793. It seems most of my family, who were farmers had at least one slave.
When my dad was a kid his family were sharecroppers who moved around, homeless really for some of that time
Kill yourself Ben. There is no redemption, you carry all those sins.
Benedict Arnold’s ancestors are traitors today, every one.
The Jews killed Jesus, the Romans too - they all deserve to die.
The Germans - should be gassed.
The White American settlers - kill all us white people, our forefathers killed Indians.
Even the test tube babies should be killed - their DNA is of ancient man, who killed Bambi.
Or,...we have free will.
You got that right. Seems there are lots of secrets in peoples lives.
My mother-in-law, the week she died, told me about watching the family farm auctioned off during the depression. she described in vivid detail watching all their personal belongings, including her things being sold. Strange thing was, after she died I mentioned our conversation, and none of her kids had ever heard the story.
Wow. I hear a lot of people say their relatives who served in wars don’t talk about it much. Maybe it was a rare thing for her to talk about it too
All of us are descendants of slaves. And all of us are descendants of slave owners. All of us. All of us are descendants of men who raped women. All of us. If the rape hadn’t happened, you, or me, would not be here now. All of us are descendants of saints, kings, murderers, slaves, and totally inconsequential people who’s entire lives have been totally forgotten. Fools, knaves, geniuses. They are all there.
I wouldn’t condemn Ben for having ancestors who owned slaves. He should be flogged for making that horrendous “Daredevil” movie. He just shoulda left town when that turd was completed.
I have a couple of living relatives I would rather not be associated with. But here in America we are judged (or should be) by what we do and what we are; not by people we are related to.
As am example, I dislike Jeb, but not because he’s related to two other politicians. He earned my disfavor while he was my governor. If he’d done a good, conservative job there I’d be out waving a Jeb banner right now. (I do admit that I’m opposed to political dynasties, but if they were all conservative I’d evaluate them as individuals and probably vote for all of them.)
“I’ve been doing the family tree thing for almost five years. I’ve known from the beginning that you have to be prepared for finding absolutely anything.”
Agree totally. I found out that Martha Carrier was almost certainly one of my Great Grandmothers. Martha was hanged as a Salem witch on August 19,1692.
Ben Affleck also does not want to reveal him cheating on his wife. Their divorce is now underway as he has now moved out.
Shh!... but don’t tell anyone.
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