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Ben Affleck’s hometown newspaper labels him a ‘white liberal’ hiding ‘truths about racism’ for getting PBS series ‘Finding Your Roots’ to CENSOR the fact that he was descended from slave owners: actor apologized a year later
- Ben Affleck was criticized as a ‘white liberal’ after a mistake he made years ago
- Affleck hid the truth about being the descendant of a slave owner in 2014
- At the time, he claimed that he was ashamed and was trying to protect his family.
Boston’s beloved Ben Affleck has been criticized by his hometown newspaper as a “white liberal” hiding the “truth about racism” years after he censored the fact that he is a descendant of slave owners out of embarrassment.
Affleck’s past was mentioned by Boston Globe columnist Renée Graham in the op-ed “Ben Affleck and White Liberals’ Discomfort with Black History” published Tuesday.
Graham recalled the 2014 ‘Finding Your Roots’ episode of the 50-year-old man which aired on PBS which left out a clip when the actor learned of his slave roots.
She criticized Affleck’s instinct to protect his family by asking the producers to remove the clip, stating that “quietly [endorses] a white supremacist history of this nation.’
“Instead of reckoning with a truth that has tainted the very marrow of this nation, long before it was a nation, for more than four centuries, Affleck chose to protect his small piece of the myth of white purity.” Graham wrote.
Ben Affleck was slammed as a ‘white liberal’ hiding the ‘truth about racism’ by The Boston Globe after he made a mistake years ago.
The now 50-year-old appeared on ‘Finding Your Roots’ in 2014. The episode left out a clip when the actor learned of his slave roots.
Affleck, who is a high-profile activist for liberal causes and a former Massachusetts resident, asked PBS producers to cut the video about his family history because he was so embarrassed, DailyMail.com first revealed in 2015.
“It kind of gives me a limp feeling to see, uh, a biological relationship to it. But, you know, there it is, part of our history,” Affleck said in the cut segment, according to Graham.
Affleck later issued a heartbroken apology when a transcript of the cut clip surfaced.
“After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for Finding Your Roots, it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was a slave owner,” he wrote on social media in 2015.
“I didn’t want any TV show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. He was embarrassed. The mere idea left a bad taste in my mouth.
The actor then explained his reason for hiding the information and the need to protect his family.
‘It’s important to remember that this is not a news program. Finding Your Roots is a program where you voluntarily provide a lot of information about your family, which makes you quite vulnerable,” she explained.
“The assumption is that they will never be dishonest, but they will respect your willingness to participate and not seek to include things that you think would embarrass your family.”
Some eight years later, Graham brought up Affleck’s painful mistake, saying that not acknowledging history only sets the country back.
“Honest conversations about this nation’s origin story are now met with mockery and backlash,” Graham wrote. “With every move away from the truth, we drag it along, and what remains unsaid and unresolved weighs heavily on this nation.”
While the Globe article claims that Affleck has “discomfort” with black history, the actor did not express this.
Affleck later issued a heartbroken apology when a transcript of the cut clip surfaced.
The slave owner in Affleck’s family tree was identified by the actor as ‘Benjamin Cole’ from Georgia, an ancestor on his mother’s side. Pictured: Ben Affleck and his former Freedom Rider mother Chris Anne, seen out and about in Los Angeles in 2014
Some people were outraged to read that Affleck’s past was brought up years after the dispute was already resolved.
‘When your closest allies start to come under attack, you know you’re dealing with those who will NEVER be satisfied. Professional and perpetual victimhood,” wrote one person on Twitter.
The slave owner in Affleck’s family tree was identified by the actor as ‘Benjamin Cole’ from Georgia, an ancestor on his mother’s side.
His mother, Chris Anne, appeared on the show, not because her ancestor benefited from the contract, but because she had been a Freedom Rider.
A spokesman for Affleck was not immediately available for comment.