One of the more curious stories to come out of the Sony hack is the fact that Ben Affleck can be exacting about his image. That’s not the most interesting thing, because one might suspect that about him. What’s notable is how demanding he can actually be. According to emails leaked as part of the Sony hack, Affleck requested that the PBS show Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., remove parts of the show referencing the fact that he had a slave-owning ancestor. We know this because host Gates emailed Sony CEO Michael Lynton requesting advice.
Affleck taped his segment in January, 2014 and according to emails that Gates sent Lynton at the time, the taping went very well and Affleck “enjoyed it so much that he is getting Matt Damon to do it, too.” (Unfortunately that didn’t happen.) Then, in July, Gates emailed Lynton again asking how to deal with the fact that a celebrity guest requested that parts of their ancestry be wiped from the show. (He didn’t name the star, but referenced “Batman.” Incidentally, in that same email thread they also talk about what a douche Harvey Weinstein is.) Gates said they’d never done this before and that it might compromise the show’s integrity. Lynton advised him to acquiesce and Gates said he was relieved, however he added that the slave-owning ancestor wasn’t demonized, and that in contrast Anderson Cooper had a horrible, abusive slave-owner as an ancestor and that he sucked it up and dealt with it. Both Affleck’s and Anderson’s episodes aired in October of last year.
Gates: Confidentially, for the first time, one of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors–the fact that he owned slaves. Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns. We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He’s a megastar. What do we do?
Lynton: The big question is who knows that the material is in the doc and is being taken out. I would take it out if no one knows, but if it gets out that you are editing the material based on this kind of sensitivity then it gets tricky. Again, all things being equal I would definitely take it out.
Gates: Good; relieved. As for the doc: all my producers would know; his PR agency the same as mine, and everyone there has been involved trying to resolve this; my agent at CAA knows. And PBS would know. To do this would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman.
Lynton: Then it is tricky because it may get out that you made the change and it comes down to editorial integrity.
Gates: It would embarrass him and compromise our integrity. I think he is getting very bad advice. I’ve offered to fly to Detroit, where he is filming, to talk it through…
And [the ancestor] wasn’t even a bad guy. We don’t demonize him at all. Now Anderson Cooper’s ancestor was a real s.o.b.; one of his slaves actually murdered him. Of course, the slave was promptly hanged. And Anderson didn’t miss a beat about that. Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.
Here’s the thing: Gates said that he suspected Affleck got bad advice, which makes sense as it took Affleck a full six months to request the change. What I don’t understand is, if this wasn’t Affleck’s own idea, why he followed the advice. Has he never seen this show or even Who Do You Think You Are? There were slave owners in America up until the Civil War. It’s a despicable, sad, regrettable part of history but we can’t help who we’re descended from. As Gates mentioned, Anderson Cooper handled an even worse situation with grace. Plus, I don’t think it affects a star’s brand at all to have horrible ancestors. People understand that no one has control over their genealogy.
In response, Gates and PBS have issued statements defending their editorial choice. Both made extremely good, convincing points. That could be due to the excellent writers at PBS but I came away feeling sorry for them. Here is part of Gates’s statement, with more on E!:
Gates: I maintain editorial control on all of my projects and, with my producers, decide what will make for the most compelling program. In the case of Mr. Affleck—we focused on what we felt were the most interesting aspects of his ancestry—including a Revolutionary War ancestor, a 3rd great–grandfather who was an occult enthusiast, and his mother who marched for Civil Rights during the Freedom Summer of 1964.
PBS: It is clear from the exchange how seriously Professor Gates takes editorial integrity. He has told us that after reviewing approximately ten hours of footage for the episode, he and his producers made an independent editorial judgment to choose the most compelling narrative. The range and depth of the stories on Finding Your Roots speak for themselves.
I do think that Gates caved, but that he considered the situation and weighed the pros and cons. I also wonder if Matt Damon was mulling doing the show and decided he didn’t want to deal with it after Ben’s issues came up. This begs the question: if Affleck (and/or his people) are this controlling about his public image, what else have they covered up?
Here’s a segment from Affleck’s Finding Your Roots episode in which he learns that he had a spiritualist ancestor.
How embarrassing for this to come out. It’s such a shame because no one would have cared. He is not his ancestors.
I disagree. If we can be proud of our ancestors, why can’t we be ashamed of them too? I’m sure if he was the descendent of royalty or some great hero he’d be happy to tell the world and bask in their reflected glory.
Therein lies the problem with many people in this country. African slavery is American history & world history PERIOD. White washing doesn’t erase that and explains why we can’t have conversations about race and how systemic it is. Ben should have let it remain. It would have been an excellent story arc.
Well said outstanding and I agree a little to with the commenters above.
We’re not our ancestors BUT if we hide their actions to glossy up our images? Hmmm. Yeah this makes me side-eye Afleck.
Celebs only go on that show and who do you think you are, to celebrate how great their family is. They really don’t want horrible things to come out.
The truth is there is much more to be embarrassed about with our ancestors than to celebrate.
I remember one episode of WDYTY where Gwyneth thought she was going to find out she was mixed race . Instead she found out her ancestors basically did what was necessary to get out of Barbados to the US. You could see the shock on her face and she quickly said well I am glad for their tenacity to try to make a better life for themselves. No one wants to hear their ancestors whored themselves out because they were poor and need to get the hell off an island, much less hear that on TV.
I meant how embarrassing for him that what he did (hiding his history) has been exposed.
Being ashamed of our ancestors’ actions doesn’t mean we, today, would/should be judged by them. I think more poorly of Ben for being embarrassed and covering it up than I ever would have thought had I known about the ancestor. The country was divided. I would guess that there are a whole lot of us walking around descended from slave owners. I know that I am. It doesn’t make me a bad person. It makes THEM a bad person.
He covered it up because he knew that the responses from a good portion of the public would be offended and it would potentially affect his career as a result.
Some people feel that it is unjust that those with a family history of slave ownership have any privilege at all today as their opportunities were possibly established as a result of other people’s hardships. People who think this way will no longer support his career.
It was a business move on his part.
@amy exactly. “We’re not our ancestors.” I watched that episode on Amazon Prime. FYR is one of my favorite PBS shows. I love history whether its ugly or pretty. Ben got some bad advice. But that still doesn’t let him off the hook. I used to pshaw all the talk of his marriage and extreme image stuff but now, oh well, that get the side eye forever. A dumb ass move. arrhg!
I agree with Outstandingworldcitizen that it would have been an excellent story arc. Proof that many American families including Affleck’s were able to change in merely a hundred years from a slave owning family to one that marched in the Civil Rights movement and continues today to defend civil and human rights through different mediums including entertainment. It shows that humans are capable of progress and that there is hope still for humans to progress a lot more for the next hundred years.
It is Affleck’s choice not to have that information publicly known and I don’t want to blame him for being ashamed, embarrassed, or worried that this information could somehow damage his reputation. He has the right to feel that way and to ask for that information to remain confidential. It’s unfortunate that his privacy has been leaked to the public. However, I think it does say a lot about Affleck’s people and it makes me wonder how much they are willing to go to cover up any negative information for him. Who knows what other embarrassing info about the star himself they have managed to cover up. They better not hope for anymore email leaks.
Everyone who was even middle class owned slaves. And not just in America. It just wasn’t thought of as morally wrong, and owning slaves has gone back to the beginning of time. It’s so easy for everyone to say he shouldn’t have objected to this getting out, but we live in a time where you can be labeled a racist for even the tiniest thing that wasn’t even meant as racist. The whole think about not being held responsible for what your ancestors did is BS. People will use whatever they can find about your or even your great-great-grandparents.
Covering it up makes it so much worse. Gates was right- now it’s an embarrassment and dings their credibility.
He certainly isn’t the first one to have found that in his past, I don’t understand the thinking behind covering it up.
I think it would have been great to include it along with the Civil Rights activities of his mom. How compelling of a story arc would that have been? If he was going to put his foot down, he should have said they could use it but only if they also used the CR stuff to show how his family had changed over time.
I really don’t like that Gates and PBS went along with the demand and now are doubling down by saying that they did leave it out, but, oh, it was for another reason anyway {handwaving} pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Everyone involved in this looks like a ball-less wonder.
This is really bad for Gates as an academic. He has probably lost the most credibility of all. There is no way he and PBS should have caved. I am not surprised that PBS did, but I am surprised that Gates went along with it, which makes me wonder about him, too. I really don’t understand why Affleck was so put out by this news. So many participants on this show and WDYTYA? found out info that was just as bad or worse! I can remember several stars who have ancestors who owned slaves–it was too common for that to be any kind of suprise. Not that one should be proud, but him trying to whitewash everything makes him seem like a controlling douche. Kim Cattrall found out her grandfather was a total bastard who abandoned her mother’s family to abject poverty and never saw them again, and then started a whole new family he cared for and stayed with just a couple of miles away! She let it all air, even though her mother and aunts are still living and were very hurt to realize how horrible their father was, and she was totally furious on their behalf. If Kim could suck it up and let something more personal and recent air, this doofus should have been able to deal with it!
It’s so silly, and I agree that Gates was pressured to edit it out, and that’s a shame. I watched an episode where Ken Burns (fan of his work) was on, and he had no problem accepting good and bad results.
Meant that it is embarrassing that its been made public that he tried to white wash his history.
True.
I have a suggestion for the Ben Afflecks of this world: Ancestry.com. Do your own private research into your antecedents before encouraging a ratings-driven TV show to do it and then air the dirty laundry they find.
He can be proud, and ashamed. We all have good/bad images in our lives, but he shouldn’t have hidden that fact.
He’s not responsible for what happened in the past… Never feel ashamed for something you had no control over…
After a month spent watching recent films I hadn’t yet seen (and hoping I never hear the “N” word ever again) and researching slavery in this country, I learned that it was prevalent throughout the 13 colonies before the Abolitionist movement in the North.
Therefore, if any one of someone’s ancestors was here in the 1600s, then it’s entirely possible that some distant relative was a slave owner – or perhaps even a slave.
Ben Affleck is supposedly smart, (his mother a teacher, Howard Zinn’s Peoples History of the U.S. et al), so how come he doesn’t know this?
Let’s face it — if everybody shakes their family tree hard enough, at least one disreputable ancestor is going to fall out.
I never believed the happy family image Ben and Jennifer have been promoting.
I think Ben really do care about his image in public but in private he sleeps around and pretty much does what he wants.
Jennifer I think just wants to stay with Ben for their children’s sake. I don’t think there is true love between these two.
she also needs him. if they divorce people will remember what a social climber she is. as long as Ben does not do anything too humiliating in public they will stay together.
i am sure Jennifer is also no celibate princess, she is just better at hiding it than Ben.
Haha. Never heard Jennifer referred to as a “social climber” before. It doesn’t even make sense, she married him on his decline and stayed with him during the years of ridicule. Bens slump didn’t end until he began directing which was fIrly recent.
How is she is social climber? When they married she had more clout in the business than he did, due to the Bennifer 1.0 disaster and fallout.
I would agree that Jennifer Garner is not a saint, but then again no one is. If she is smarter at keeping her exploits quiet, all the power to her.
Garner may have gotten with him when he was slowly on a decline in his starpower, but she probably knew that he had it in him to be an certified A-list, well respected actor. Since he was well on his way to being so until he started choosing bombs to star in. She saw the potential and just polished him off so he could get to the level he always had the potential to achieve if only he had someone to help him with the messy parts of himself and she made sure she was that person.
I doubt she would have latched on to him and stuck with him if there was no hope of him becoming a major Hollywood player.
Ben’s career was in the toilet. He was the butt of jokes. She was still on but finishing up a huge hit TV show that made her a lot of money. While they were together, his first directing job, his name was so tainted in the movie business as far as box office draw, that they downplayed his connection with the movie.
Social climber? LOL As he said, she believed in him when no one else did, besides Matt, of course.
Looking at it from a purely business perspective, Ben had Harvey on his side no matter how badly his career was going when Jen met him. His business address book was and will always be better than Jen’s address book. To say that she rescued his career is to misunderstand that aspect of their professional life. If Jen was the hollywood whisperer that people think she is, why not create similar magic for Michael Vartan and Scott Forley.
As far as his public image is concerned, it’s better to have her by his side than out boozing, gambling and visiting ladies of the night. A fact brought home with his public campaign for the oscar for ARGO.
Based upon gossip and pictures of them together, Jen adores him. Always has and will never, ever leave him. She’ll do anything for him and he is lucky that way, but as for his actual career, he is far more accomplished as far as getting with the right hollywood circles to get ahead.
Ben was absolutely the bigger name and Jen saw him as the big fish to land! Yes, Jen was coming off a huge success with with her hit show Alias, but Ben had been a blockbuster movie star for years at that point and won an Oscar right out the gate with Good Will Hunting!
Jen was married and cheated on her husband with her Alias costar. She was no angel. Then when she was dating her costar, Michael Vartan, she set her eyes on Affleck. It wasn’t love at first sight as he didn’t pursue her the first time they met. She liked had a crush and eventually won him over.
So yes, Jen is a social climber. Had she not married Ben Affleck, and settled down with a lesser known actor she would be C list for sure, and certainly not papped every day with her kids!
I’m also going to disagree with the “social climber” aspect to Jen and Ben – I think it’s unfair – especially when we now have a Social Climber Extraordinaire in Ms. Sophie Hunter Cumberbatch! Now ladies, that is how social climbing through marriage is done! Get mentioned in various upscale magazines like Vogue and be touted as a Theatre Director – when nothing could be farther from the truth.
Jen was an actress who had a name for herself in TV as well as a bit here and there in film. Has she done better for herself since her marriage? Well…maybe, though I don’t think anyone could argue that she couldn’t have scored the stuff she’s done since her wedding to Ben on her own merits. And, cut the poor girl some slack, she deserves *something* for being the better half of a philandering, drunk, hot mess.
LAK
I think Jen learned her “whisper” skills later on. And while she did save his career it was more saving her own as well. She was slowly climbing the fame stairs and did have jumpoffs instead of ending relationships 1st. Things have only improved for her career and financially with Ben.
I’m just playing devil’s advocate.
I’m guessing that’s true for a lot of Hollywood couples.
I also disagree with the comment that Jennifer Garner is a “social climber.” She had a name already. Sure she had Alias but she was an emerging ingenue that even Steven Spielberg noticed it and cast her in the movie Catch Me if You Can along with young actresses who are big names now. Before Ben (BB), she already won SAG and Golden Globe Awards, and was an Emmy nominated TV actress for several years. She is very talented and could have been a bigger actor had she not decided to take care of family first. Ben at that time was on a decline. He saw a potential as a wife in Jennifer so he can rehab his “image.” You know the family man and husband image. As per his Argo Oscar speech, no one wanted to work with him in Hollywood anymore. Jennifer was there for him and he mentioned he wouldn’t be there standing, if it wasn’t for her. Some people (per LaineyGossip) believe that Jennifer was instrumental in resurrecting his career. She took that back seat and let him work on getting back his career. Remember she has a sister who has an MBA and a Marketing degree. You just read between lines there. Jennifer has “clout” in Hollywood if you want to say that and very smart. She gets regular jobs and considered a “journeyman” actress as she is very talented. The only thing is she picks roles that are easy and doesn’t take long time away from her kids.
Ben Affleck who puts on the family show for paps during Oscar season and sucks in his gut when pics of him pumping gas are taken is controlling of his image? No, no, no. I refuse to believe it. Not Batfleck😄
Yes. He is always sucking in his gut and I don’t know what he is taking, but contrary to what the tabs say he doesn’t look cut he just looks kind of swollen. There is barely any muscular definition in his arms, they’re just big. He better be lucky that the batsuit comes with already molded muscles.
I think it was cowardly of BA to deny the truth and wrong of the show to cave in to his demands. Of course slavery was a shameful thing, one of the worst things mankind has done, but denying it happened in your history so you can look “better” is dishonest. If we aren’t going to repeat mistakes that our ancestors made, and if we truly abhor them, we have to face them.
Well said, GNAT!
Hear hear!
Agreed. It would have been so much more graceful of him to use this as an opportunity to say, “yes, my family was involved with one of the darkest parts of American history. While I can’t change my ancestors’ past, I can choose how I move forward into the future, and I choose honesty.”
That would have been awesome.
Exactly, Shambles!
I guess it’s the nature of a show like this. If you agree to go on the show, it’s with the knowledge there’s always a chance you’ll find out an ancestor or two (or three…or four…) did something horrible way back when. Either don’t do the show, or work with your publicist to draft a statement similar to what Shambles suggested if something bad is discovered.
Absolutely. Why bother going on a show like this if you’re not willing to learn a damn thing?
As a German citizen with one German parent, I do not get this at all. It’s practically a given that somewhere in every German’s family there’s a Nazi hidden. Or not hidden at all. I know I have a few bad eggs (or at the time: regular people) in my family tree and I don’t feel great about it but I’m not ashamed either. I didn’t do anything but I definitely feel a responsibility.
What I find upsetting is that apparently, his audience is so dumb that they can’t differentiate between him and his family history? Celebrities can really be panicky children.
So true. I just came across an article about a biracial young German woman, Jennifer Teege, who found out that her grandfather ran a concentration camp where 8000 Jews were murdered and he was featured in the movie “Schindler’s List”. Her grandmother was complicit in what was going on too.
She was in turmoil over her grandparents especially her grandmother because she had idolized her. Anyhow, Teege wrote her own memoir, “My grandfather would have shot me.”
I read that–her grandfather was Amon Goethe…..that would be a massive shock.
Oh God, HIM??? That’s a completely different dimension but yes, if she can, frickin’ Batman can deal with it. Especially when he goes searching for the history.
“Especially when he goes searching for the history. ”
This is the part that just gets me. He went on a show that has the specific purpose of finding out about one’s ancestors. I don’t know who all is in my family, but if I went on the show I’d be fully prepared to find out that my ancestors did something terrible at some point or another. The more I think about this entire story, the more aggravated I get.
Hey, does anyone know if George Clooney has done something like this show? I would be very curious to see how he’d handle discovering ugly family history.
@dappadah – good god, what a horrifying discovery for her to make. I can only imagine how much she’d have struggled with that knowledge, even while realising that she is not responsible for her grandfather’s atrocities.
Whoever advised him was dumb. So many guest have slave masters in their family and no one ever holds it against them. This makes me sad because I love this show and to find out that they would hide this sort if thing is disappointing. And Gates is lying about deciding to not talk about this particular ancestor in order to focus on more interesting ancestor. Anyone that watches that show knows how much Gates loves to talk about slavery and find out if any of his guest has a connection to it, whether because their family owned slaves, were slaves or/and fought in the Civil War. Ben is so dumb. If you have family in the US before a certain time there is a good chance that they were involved in slavery in some way, so if he was so afraid to have that put out there then he should have forgone being on the show or having his episode air at all.
Also, Ben, like every other celeb/actor cares about his image. If his team would cover up something so innocuous as this info, it’s not hard to image they have covered up far worst stories about Ben.
Agree. Gates is lying.
I am sorry he chose to acquiesce to Afleck. It compromises the integrity of the show, one of our favorites.
It certainly changes how the audience perceives the host.
I am so disappointedin Gates and PBS. As for Affleck, I had no respect to lose. I felt this show was authentic and informative. It will not be possible to watch it now without some skepticism, which is more shameful than revealing an ancestral slave owner.
+1
It’s very disappointing. Now I will always wonder what did they edit out. Disgraceful..
The personal and the professional are probably mixed up together for both of them, but while I think it’s too bad Affleck can’t be strong enough to know or make the correct decision on his own, I – as a viewer – am genuinely impacted & disgusted at Gates’ + PBS’ error of professional integrity here.
I’m not in the least bit surprised Ben would do something like this. He is a dishonest phony, it’s all about image with him even the Congo charity is all about how it can benefit Ben and make him look good. Anything that makes Ben look less than perfect in the public eye always gets covered up by team Affleck. You can’t change your past and your not responsible for the actions of your ancestors, even if they were slave owners too bad Affleck’s narcissistic ego couldn’t see that. Even if the show had uncovered that he was related to Scott Peterson Ben had no right to pressure Henry Gates to only include the parts that make him look good.
Well, since any Ben Affleck post generates mostly negative responses…I will just say, I am pretty sure that most celebs take their PR very seriously. Sounds like a few months after doing the show, Ben mentioned this to one of his PR people and they said ‘NO WAY’ put that out there. Or, maybe Ben thought about it, and felt shame, especially in light of all the work he does in the Congo and so, didn’t want the public to know about it. But, I’m sure all the BA haters will be happy to jump on the “let’s hate Ben Affleck” train…they always do….
True – every celeb cares about their image.
But the fact that Ben wanted this out is the main issue here. It’s like he wants to wipe it out so that it is not true. You cannot deny your history – only accept it, learn from it and move on.
I can understand the shame and embarrassment but it’s dishonest not to plug the plug on the ENTIRE Afflect segment instead of simply wanting the big negative pulled and whitewashing his history as full of just do-gooders and essentrics. To me that’s what reflects poorly on his character not the slave-owner ancestor he had nothing to do with. As was said Anderson Cooper and other liberal White celebrities faced up to their horrible ancestors without missing a beat.
I agree. Angie gets all this press on here when she gives speeches, etc. Ben went before Congress very recently about the Congo and gave an impassioned speech and praised his wife who was there with him and they had his oldest daughter Violet, who he has said in an interview he has begun sharing with her the plight of many people and plans to take her to Africa on one of his humanitarian trips now that she is a little older. It never got covered here like the Angelina stories do. But even if it did, there would just be nasty posts that he is a phony, using his wife there and kid, blah, blah.
His organization is a passion for Ben and he wants it to be his legacy, and he partnered with a woman who is very experienced over there and they don’t want to throw money at it. They want to empower the people they are trying to help in a way that helps them sustain themselves, not just give charity.
I’m not gonna lie, I do find the favoritism off putting. But then, and I hope I’m not crushing any egos here, this is a very very small corner of the Internet. And the Internet gossip world is a very very small corner of entertainment news. I doubt it means anything significant PR wise that somebody gets slammed or praised here. If it did Kristen Stewart, Beyonce, Madonna and j Aniston would have no career. And Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch would be super stars.
Also, can you imagine how the tabloids would jump on this story… BATMAN’S BEN AFFLECK’S RACIALLY CHARGED PAST! If I found out that I had a slave owner ancestor, or a Nazi ancestor, or a Klu Klux Klan ancestor, I don’t think I would be telling the world about it, and I’m a nobody…I agree that, if I were Ben, I would have just let the story go, after all, we can’t help who our ancestors are…but, again, I’m sure the tabloids would have a field day with this…
It was covered here.
http://www.celebitchy.com/419051/ben_affleck_testifies_in_front_of_senate_subcommittee_along_with_bill_gates/
+1
I am not sure why he thought it needed to be denied. As long as he has no slaves himself, or is racist like his ancestors, what difference does it make what happened in the 19th century. Many people alive today in the United States have slavery in their background one way or another. Now it just seems so sneaky and underhanded to try and re-write history.
Ego.
Ego and political aspirations.
At least it shows that he is deeply ashamed of his ancestor. He shouldn’t think he has to shoulder any of the blame for the past. It has nothing to do with the person he is. I would have just apologized for the ancestor and let it go at that. He should have realized that being a celebrity someone in the media would lay it bare and try to lay the blame on him, which is just ridiculous.
It makes me angry that Henry Gates and PBS caved, especially when Gates said this “Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”
It doesn’t surprise me that Ben Affleck would be a coward and overly worried about his image. Gates and PBS should have said no and refused to air his episode if he insisted.
At the end of a day, lots of white Americans are descended from slave owners. Lots of black Americans are descended from slaveowners too! Its history and it’s what happened. Whitewashing the past is deplorable and unacceptable. How can we and our children ever truly move forward when so many apologists want to deny the truth of our past?
We are not our ancestors, but covering up uncomfortable truths is not how we break free of harmful patterns regarding race and inequality we inherited from them.
This! Everything you said. And honestly, I do think integrity of the show has been compromised.
I’ve never loved Affleck, and considering the rumors, which are still called rumors just bc he has a great PR machine (I mean, I can’t believe that, with some commenters who are regulars for the last 2-3 years, no one remembers one poster who confirmed his hook up witzh a young actress that the poster was doing make-up for at the party in question-just couple of days before some speculations surfaced in the media about it, but every time Affleck is on CB most of the people regard him as great family man), this doesn’t surprise me a bit. But the authors? They were right in their worry that they’ll come across as dishonest, they should have listened to themselves.
Ditto
It’s not particularly difficult for anyone with an ancestry.com account to find out if someone had slave-owning ancestors. Because you’re not limited to just your own family, if I researched Affleck enough I could have found his ancestors’ information myself. As an amateur genealogist I can understand a bit of embarassment, but we all have skeletons in the family closet. For example, I found out my great-grandfather went to prison for rape after his wife died and his 6 daughters wound up in an orphanage. I’m wondering if Affleck was more embarassed by his on-tape REACTION to the information and that’s why he wanted it edited?
I’ve tried to do some ancestry.com research and it was way harder than I thought it would be. Maybe that’s just my family, but I expected it to take much less time.
Me, too. Maybe I’m stupid, but it’s like you have to already know who your ancestors are to find any information about them. I got nowhere. Lol
Really? That’s disappointing to hear because I was interested in looking up my ancestry.
I just started doing ancestry.com, and have gotten most lines back several hundred years. If you have names, some rough dates, and a general location, for 3 or 4 generations back, you should be able to find stuff. The best way is once you have a name look at other ancestry trees with that person in it, see if someone else has found their parents or other relatives, add them to your tree, and keep building from there.
I had one line that went way back and had some Lord/Lady types in it so there was a good history already built on them, but on my Dad’s side, I can’t get past his grandparents, there’s nothing.
I tried that Ancestry,com thing, too…glad I’m not the only one who found it difficult…
It definitely takes some practice. It took me 2 years of dabbling before I finally asked for tips from a co-worker who specializes in genealogy. In the last 9mos or so the ball finally started rolling. Census records and-believe it or not-death certificates are the 2 most helpful documents. Death certificates have SO much info on them. In Affleck’s case, census records from the 1800s would have shown if his ancestors owned slaves as they listed members of the household not by name but by age group/sex/color and whether they were free or slaves (for example: 2 white males over 17yrs, 3 white females under 17yrs, 2 free persons of color, etc).
If your family has immigrated here more recently and you are serious about researching you could try familysearch.org (a free website similar to ancestry.com) or contacting LDS. They actually hold A TON of records in Utah. My in-laws immigrated here (my husband grew up in Europe) and my FIL used the LFD records quite a bit. My Jewish family came here 100yrs ago, and past my great-grandparents I haven’t had any luck on ancestry.com, and the town they lived in doesn’t exist anymore (because of WWII). When I get more time LDS is my next step.
Hope this helps!
Try contacting your local genealogy group, either county or state. Your local public library may be able to help you find them. Many of these groups give classes in how to get started with genealogy and how to search things like Ancestry.com
Starting with Ancestry.com isn’t going to be the answer for many people. There is no control over what is added by members of the public. There are millions of mistakes in there made by ordinary people who make assumptions and build faulty family trees.
Ancestry.com Is cute if you aren’t a person of color or a fresh Immigrant and so on… but my GF did the DNA test to pinpoint her ancestry (turned out to be Tanzania) that said I don’t her American’s and their obsession with Genealogy TBH)
Paperwork was definitely not on the side of the POC or Immigrant (BOOM! two for two) but yeah it seems like something where you’ll need a family tree and use it to pinpoint if you’re the Smiths of Delaware with Mary Sue for a cousin or the Smiths of Carolina with Betty Sue for a cousin.
Yes, I know that in getting an exact number of immigrants from my country (to USA) in 19th and early 20th century, the greatest problem is that USA didn’t write their nationality…they were recognised as “Austro-hungarian”, although they had to state their nationality in KK monarchy.
Yes it is definitely MUCH harder for people of color and more recent immigrants. The other line I’m stuck on is family that immigrated from Russia in 1910, so the language barrier makes a mess of names and spellings. If I could find the original last name I could probably get more, but so far no results.
Even if you can’t go back too far, some of the documents it pulls up are interesting. All of my grandparents are deceased, and none of them ever told me much about their families, so even just some census forms from the last 100 years had new info for me.
This, QQ! I tried to look my GRANDMA up (who is part black, part Native American) and I couldn’t find her–I had her full name, her date of birth, and I couldn’t find her………
Not always. There’s a heck of a lot of info on my families on both sides. We’re POC, but had the fortune to be freed (for the most part) early on.
And, Ben Affleck, both my white and black ancestors were slave owners. Not something to be proud of, but important to understand the history of America.
My Sicilian husband, on the other hand, doesn’t have much on Ancestry because of turn of the century immigration.
QQ I just saw your Facebook page. You are a genius! I have a bulldog and would love to have one made of him. Do you deliver overseas?
Ancestry.com only works for white people.
I believe it’s because he wants to run for office one day, and someone has advised him this will become targeted buzz against him. Not that it should, but I think he became nervous from the advice he got. I get his embarrassment, even though it has nothing to do with him. None of us would want to shout from the rooftops to the world our ancestors were slave owners, except loud and proud bigots. He didn’t say anything for six months, so I definitely think it was just bad advice being given to him later that made him rethink it. I think he just didn’t expect anything like this to be in his background being from Boston, but he should have known this was going to get out and be worse than just letting all the stories from the search be told, like Anderson Cooper did.
Love you, but you do know that slavery was legal in the entire US, even Boston, until the 1820s? And Jim Crowe laws were originally instituted in Philadelphia? And people were kicked out of the abolitionist movement in the North for suggesting that blacks should not only be free, but have equal rights with whites? Northerners have no reason to expect a history free from slavery. Only about 20% of Southerners owned slaves at all, and only 4% owned a large number at the beginning of the civil war. I’m not trying to excuse the history of slavery and racism in the South AT ALL, or say it wasn’t a much worse history than the North, but it irks me when people just “forget” that slavery was part of our nation’s history, not just the South.
This^^^ People often forget the North had slaves too. Wall Street was one of the main trade locations. American history like to gloss over the slave trade and how widespread it was. And how multinational companies that still exist made the fortunes from it.
@GoodNamesAllTaken: I know they did and didn’t mean to infer there wasn’t. I went back to add that and it was too late to edit What I meant was that I think when he agreed to do this in his mind the likelihood was lower than if his relatives came from the South and owned plantations.
Yes, Jayna, I didn’t mean to pick on you. I think it’s a general perception, and I’m sure you know your history. Just can’t keep my mouth shut sometimes, sorry.
Haven’t these famous people learnt their lesson yet? There’s nothing they can keep secret, it doesn’t matter how much money they toss at people, sooner or later even the most torrid secret will come out eventually.
This is so dumb on so many levels. He should just have owned his family tree and tell that he’s not responsible in any way for what his ancestors did centuries ago.
“There’s nothing they can keep secret, it doesn’t matter how much money they toss at people, sooner or later even the most torrid secret will come out eventually.”
thats up for debate. we can obviously only know the stuff thats coming out. i am sure there is a lot of stuff thats never coming out due to money and/or threats.
Yes but it’s very risky. The chances of your secret to get uncovered is really high and I wouldn’t risk it unless it wasn’t something really really wrong and in that case I’d secure myself with a big ass lawyer and having people to sign confidentiality agreements.
sorry but what Affleck did is just plain old stupid.
I always thought and still think that he is a a-hole. This just confirms it. Unless you were on camera with a grin and saying you are proud of it, let it me known, discuss and move on to the next topic. I doubt the entire hour would have been about that particular ancestor.
I think it was stupid of him to have it removed, but I don’t think that it causes the show to now be suspect. People have a right to decide what to reveal about themselves, so if he didn’t want to have that shown, he should have been able to have it edited without a problem.
The show isn’t named “We’re going to find the bad things about your past and air them, no matter what!”
Idiot. If he’d just let the episode run as is it’d have been over and done with. It may not even have generated enough publicity to be featured on a bunch of sites because shocker most White people with any European or American based family history owned slaves.
Now, however? Well now it’s a problem. Because apparently the mere taint of his reputation was more important than giving some honor to those individuals memories.
Shame on Ben but shame on Gates. Now the show has this reputation against it of caving to a celebrities ego. Smh.
This is perfect. Thank you, Sony Hack aka Divine Intervention!
This is beyond dumb. Most white ancestors from that time period owned slaves. Duh.
I’m sure it’s painful and shameful to find out that you have an ancestor in your past that did things that you find personally reprehensible, but the past is the past. I think it’s ridiculous to request removal of certain things. Either be on the show and find out the truth, or don’t, but don’t edit out stuff because you feel it might somehow hurt YOUR image. Sheesh. So what? Someone in his family owned slaves. Yeah, that’s horrible, but that was true for a lot of people at the time and it’s just part of his ancestral bloodline. What matters is his views on slavery and other issues NOW, not what someone who died a long time ago did.
I loved what they said about Anderson Cooper. He handled it exactly right. It is what it is.
It’s like a watched a documentary called Hitler’s Children about descendants (children and grandchildren) of top-ranking Nazi criminals and some really felt such shame and anguish that it has completely changed their lives. One great-niece and her brother actually got sterilized so that his genes didn’t move forward and died out with them. Others wrote books and gave speeches to Jewish groups, etc. Shame is a strange thing.
Whoa, getting sterilized is very extreme. It is shameful what their ancestors did, but THEY are NOT their ancestors! Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents being involved in atrocities are tragic but we are individuals.
I could never condone sterilization because someone was related to a nazi or a slave owner. That’s wrong to me.
I watched that on Netflix. It was really, really interesting.
He wants to project an image that presents him and his families past in a good light. The fact that he would bully the production to cover this up shows him to be a control freak obsessed with presenting a false, whitewashed appearance. As if anybody would care and judge you on what your ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Maybe he’s so judgemental of others for who they are descended from that he thinks everybody is like him.
Ben is an idiot for trying to cover it up. He should have included it and no one would have cared.
I think it’s a real shame they censored it. There could have been some interesting discussion to come out of this revelation. I’m not sure how to phrase this but I’ll try:
It seems like Affleck wanted to give the impression his ancestors were the enlightened EXCEPTION when it came to slave ownership. But to me it’s more important to be honest about how deeply EMBEDDED slave ownership was in our culture. That is, it’s not just evil mean sadistic people that owned them. It was just average folks. Average people can be party to horrible things when those things become culturally accepted. To me that’s part of what makes it so shameful and in a way SCARY. Not sure if that makes sense.
I’m more surprised that Henry Louis Gates, Jr. described a slave owner as “wasn’t even
a bad guy.”
I’m sure BA didn’t do it for selfish reasons. But just as we are to be proud of them, we are also allowed to be a bit embarrassed/ashamed too. People with German ancestry run the risk of finding a nazi or two so it’s all something we have to deal with. POC often go back and find that their ancestors were slaves, these things aren’t always pretty.
He absolutely did it for selfish reasons. He defends Muslims on Bill Maher’s show. He campaigned for president Obama. The #1 celebrity democrat can’t have a slave owning ancestor. I know you’re not comparing someone’s ancestors being slaves to someone’s ancestors being slave owners?
It is sort of chicken-sh*t to agree to do the show and than try to (literally), white-wash the results. No one has control over who they are related to. I don’t get the fascination with ancestors- I mean, humans are not a very nice species, if you go digging it seems guaranteed you will find at least some awful stuff. If you don’t have it already in your immediate family!
,
Oops sorry I replied inthe wrong place fingerbinger! By the way, is that picture Jamie fox from in living color? I miss that show….
We have tons of ancestors. These shows only focus on a couple, usually because of historical interest. And there are plenty of nobodies, scoudrels and even murderers featured. The celebrities always tap into empathy for their forebears, even if they are poor struggling every mans. Plenty of other celebrities have found slaveowner ancestors. So in this case they focused on someone else. Big deal. I don’t think this impugns the integrity of Affleck or the show.
Why would anyone blame Ben for what his ancestors did? That is not right and it is not fair. I think they shouldn’t have edited that part out, it’s a part of history…a horrible part, but you can’t just act like it didn’t happen.
Schwarzenegger’s father was a nazi policeman. It’s known.Schwarzie doesn’t boast but he accepts
I think you guys overestimate the intelligence of average people. There are, in fact, plenty who would assume Ben Affleck is a racist slave-owner apologist because his great-great-grandfather, who he had no way of choosing, was one. This forum is small. On the bigger social media outlets – facebook, twitter, tumblr, youtube – you can see how most people think. And, eh… let’s just say you always have to expect the worst.
So true.
Yet there were other celebrities on that show that were shown to have slave-owning ancestors. Nobody is launching a campaign saying those celebrities agreed with their ancestors.
On Gate’s and BBC/NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are,” celebrities’ ancestors have been outed for all sorts of crimes against humanity, yet the viewers don’t equate what their ancestors did with the celebrities. All they had to do when the cameras caught their reactions to the revelations was to act surprised and express disagreement with their ancestors’ decisions.
“Renee28:
It was covered here.”
http://www.celebitchy.com/419051/ben_affleck_testifies_in_front_of_senate_subcommittee_along_with_bill_gates/
Thanks, Renee28. I stand corrected and it’s nice to see Celebitchy do a thoughtful, in-depth coverage of what it was about. I missed it I guess because there were only 14 comments to the article and so it came and went. I think it’s great they brought Violet. And it was nice in his speech the way he praised Jennifer.
I guess more people on here posting are only interested in Ben Affleck when it’s bad news about him so it can reinforce their views of him, but not positive coverage about something important he’s accomplishing.
+1.
I agree that he shouldn’t have edited the fact that his ancestors owned slaves, but you would think that Ben himself owned slaves by the amount of outrage around here.
People just love to hate this guy.
Now it looks like the only ancestors that were allowed to be shown for Affleck are the ‘good’ ones, not any ‘bad’ ones. That says more about his ego than anything.
It would have been more educational if the slave-owning ancestor was mentioned. But I guess Affleck’s ego outweighs everything else.
As for PBS and Gates, now viewers have to wonder what else was taken out for the other celebrity guests. I’ve watched many of the episodes. Now I will wonder if any of them were ‘censored’ too.
For PBS and Gates to say that Affleck’s slave-owning ancestor wouldn’t have been interesting or educational, then how does that explain other guests’s ancestors being outed for slave-ownership, and not just Anderson’s too.
Can’t whitewash the past no matter how much you might wish to. So what if he had a slave owner ancestor. Unless he’s got some slaves now, this should have been a footnote in his family’s history. Especially with the work he does in the Congo. But no. Mr PR just had to exert his power and have it squashed and shame on Professor Gates for compromising his ethics.
it’s who do you think you are not who do you want to be
the show and pbs have no credibility
I don’t believe in censoring our history since we dance around the legacy of racism and slavery often enough in this country, but I guess if I had to pick something to be so embarassed and ashamed of from my ancestry that I wouldn’t want it mentioned, slave ownership is probably one of the better excuses.
Cooper did handle his revelation with a lot of grace! I watched the segment and man, it was just such an astonishing revelation!
I’m a naturalized citizen so it’s more likely that I don’t have slave owners among my ancestors but I can imagine how sad it would be to discover that you do.
Ben is so obsessed with his “image.” That is how I see it. One major debacle and he is back to his Gigli days. He should have taken the high road just like Anderson Cooper. I watched that segment and he was very accepting and felt bad for the slaves his ancestors owned. You guys should watch it.
Ben is surrounded by people who are so protective of his own image that they are losing sight. Just like what happened on Bill Maher show. He had a point but the way he handled it was very embarrassing. He bullied his way just like what he did here.
His handlers should be more concerned to hide what he is doing NOW than what his ancestors did hundred of years ago!
I can tell you when Jennifer and Ben got together. She and Vartan had already broken up. Jen confirmed in a radio interview that she was single. A few months later, she filmed the Elektra movie (that I feel nobody saw) during her summer Alias hiatus. Ben went up there (Canada) to film a cameo scene since they were both in Daredevil together. The cameo scene was cut from the movie but it was right after that happened that rumors started flying they’d been spotted in coffee shops and walking around holding hands. A couple of months later she showed up at a Red Sox game with him and pretty much confirmed they were together. They were both single at the time, I don’t think there was any cheating involved (I dunno about Scott Foley though, that timeline is sketchier).
And if she was a social climber, shouldn’t she be getting all these great roles in movies?? Or divorced Ben and moved on to someone else? She hasn’t worked that much since Alias ended which is when she got pregnant with Violet. I dunno about the state of their relationship but her career was on the upswing at the time. Ben was basically in hiding. I feel a social climber would have been embarrassed to be seen dating him back then.
As for Ben wanting to white wash his ancestors… I can understand the sentiment but it just makes him look worse for trying to hide it.
I agree. I don’t understand where the “social climber” label is coming from.
I would think there would be a tacit agreement that by going on the show you’re going to accept what the researchers uncover for airing. I would have had no judgment towards Affleck for having slave owning ancestors – but I do judge him for trying to cover it up. He’s such a whiney one.
Affleck is a phony and very controlling of his image. You saw him on Bill Maher’s show being condescending to a scientist because he was trying to look oh so tolerant. As a minority, I would respect him more if he left it in and acknowledged it as a horrible part of history the way Anderson Cooper did. Stop trying to pretend it’s not part of history. This just makes him look self serving to me.
Predictably enough, Ben went on a pap-friendly outing with his kid soon after this information went public.
So true! I was actually 100% sure it was going to happen. Farmer’s Market and Disneyland as photo ops but people on Twitter could care less. All weekend long, lots of Twitters were angry and bashing him! BTW, there was a woman who was with him at this photo ops at Disneyland and Farmer’s Market, not Jennifer and she doesn’t look like a nanny either. Hmmmm….
I think his marriage at this point is purely business. Again, it is all about his ‘image.” I am just waiting for him to be outed with all the shenanigans he has done. His children will have a hard time re-writing that part of their family history.
He likes to act like he isn’t image-obsessed but obviously he is. Shame on PBS for caving to his demands. I don’t buy that they “independently” decided that it wasn’t interesting enough to include (ORLY?). It was clearly going to be part of his story if it necessitated tense emails to a Sony exec, of all people. Can’t handle it in house, PBS?
Everyone looks bad in this.
What’s appalling is not his slave owning ancestors but rather his bullying behavior in order maintain his image to the public. It shows a lack of sincerity. This is how Ben rolls. This is how he operates. He’s got power in Hollywood and uses it. It was the Sony exec that “caved.” Clearly Dr. Gates was “concerned” but he doesn’t make the final decisions. The Sony exec does. This is how Ben got the Batman role. We can only imagine what dealings went down at Warner Brothers. Now those are the emails we want to see. More to come folks. The only thing bigger than Ben’s power in Hollywood is his ego. If he bullies PBS producers making “unprecedented” editing requests, what other requests does he make?
Denial makes you part of the problem. Transparency makes you part of the solution. History bears this out time and time again. This is a bigger issue than a celebrity’s image. For PBS (the Public Broadcast System) to be pressured to tailor truth and history to the demands of of ‘megastar’ is a serious problem – and one window into just how smarmy this whole system is. Celebrities – even ‘megastars’ – are not our ruling class, even if they want to be. Ben’s ancestors may have bought and owned people. He doesn’t.
+1
I feel bad for Gates that he tried to do the right, fair thing given that no one else had ever made such a demand, and now the integrity of the show is called into question. As for Affleck, somehow I’m not that surprised, he seems very touchy about his image. Maybe that’s why he’s so boring.
I think part of it may have been that Affleck’s dangling Matt Damon in front of Gates could have motivated Gates to give into Affleck’s demand to leave the slave-owning ancestor out of the show. Also, Gates could have been worried that if he didn’t bend in favor of his celebrity guests, that word-of-mouth, either by Affleck or whomever else, could make it harder to get really big-name guests in the future.
I think it was greed and insecurity on Gates’ part and ego on Affleck’s part. But like Gates’ correspondent said, it looks bad for both of them knowing what we know now.
Gates could get in very serious trouble for this. I know he’s lost massive credibility with me for it. You do NOT cover up uncomfortable truths if you want to be treated seriously as an historian or a journalist. And to cover them up because some spoiled celebrity asked you to? It would have been better to refuse to air the segment at all.
Everyone’s got unpleasant ancestors. I’ve got slaveowning ancestors myself. It’s a very uncomfortable thing to consider, but the study of history does not exist to comfort. It exists to discover truths about human existence, and if we cover it up, we will never get anywhere.
Oh, and Ben Affleck’s a sleazeball, but I’ve always thought that.
This. Over and over. One of mine was convicted of “manslaughter” for his indentured servant. Ugly history.
I don’t think it had anything to do with his ego as an actor and his image in that respect. I think it had everything to do with he wants to run for public office one day. He didn’t immediately after ask them to delete that portion. It was six months later. Someone obviously advised him that it would be a good idea not to have this out there. I’m sure it bothered him to learn of his ancestor’s role in slavery, but to pressure them to take it out I still think it has to do more with his future in running for public office and how dirty it gets even in the primaries. It’s known how each side throws derogatory buzz out there. For those enlightened on here, that say people wouldn’t judge him, you would be surprised at what works out there to turn voters against someone if you throw enough stuff out there and see what sticks in turning off voters. As a liberal Democrat, he would be courting the African American voters. Some opponent in the Democratic party could very keep this alive in an underhanded kind of way.
I also think it was a huge error in judgment for him to try to get this part deleted because he got nervous and got bad advice, because, invariably, in this day and age, it will get out there some way. And then the omission becomes worse than had it been included
“They want to empower the people they are trying to help in a way that helps them sustain themselves, not just give charity.”
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/ben-affleck-rwanda-and-corporate-sustained-catastrophe/
Tempest in a teapot.
Trying to cover this up is so dumb, and having it backfire was inevitable.
I don’t have A slave-owning ancestor, I have LOTS of slave-owning ancestors — like many, many Southerners with white ancestors who immigrated via pre-revolutionary Virginia. Folks like to join Daughters of the American Revolution and talk about their families’ lengthy and storied history in the U.S., but get touchy REAL fast when you point out that their families bought and sold human beings like cattle.
Trying to pretend like your slave-owning ancestors didn’t engage in repugnant practices, and like you as their descendant haven’t benefited from deeply engrained and unfair social privilege that accrues to you purely as a result of your race (and as a result of the systemic oppression of people of color that your own ancestors engaged in), just makes you another entitled white person complicit in pretending racism is all fixed now. And it isn’t.
Own the facts of your family’s history. Feel ashamed about your ancestors’ racist actions? Fight against racism today, because it is real and it is here. Covering up the personal history of slavery in America helps no one.
All motivated by the fear of losing endorsements.
Like Sofia, who is afraid to offend the prolifers. She knows her demographics, selling her clothing line at Wal-Mart in the Bible Belt.
All about $$$$$$$$
Yes to Jayna. I think he is shaping his image in the interest of a future political career.
He’s gotta be lovin’ those Sony hacks!
Just like some german ancestors have a history of nazis and some africand have history of genocide. Noone is perfect.
It’s no crime to have slave owners in the family. It’s the cover up.
Nobody Cares!
Woulda looked stronger to own it. Make an issue out of it, get some respect & grow his fan base. Now his fan base will shrink because he couldn’t handle it.
And apart from that, god what’s wrong with his eyebrows?
Angie – really good post and I agree. If left it, it could’ve sparked some really good discussion about regular people doing things that today we do view as horrific, but at the time it was seen as “normal” and many people did it.
And I agree with what The Other Katherine said:
“Trying to pretend like your slave-owning ancestors didn’t engage in repugnant practices, and like you as their descendant haven’t benefited from deeply engrained and unfair social privilege that accrues to you purely as a result of your race (and as a result of the systemic oppression of people of color that your own ancestors engaged in), just makes you another entitled white person complicit in pretending racism is all fixed now. And it isn’t. Own the facts of your family’s history. Feel ashamed about your ancestors’ racist actions? Fight against racism today, because it is real and it is here. Covering up the personal history of slavery in America helps no one.”
Well said! You can’t change the past, but you can, through your actions and your voice, show the world the kind of person YOU are today.
As for his possible future political career, it’s even more of a mistake if that was the reason to try to cover it up. It makes him look less truthful and sneaky, and frankly… I suspect that if you looked into the past of most of those with ancestors who lived in the US during that time, you’d find a tremendous number of them had relatives that were slave owners. It was a horrible and shameful thing, but it was all too common at the time. Being open and honest and talking about having that in your past, and the financial benefit that might have come to you down through your ancestors having done that, would be a good discussion and would’ve looked better on him.