Source: Light Brigade/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
Ben Affleck made news basically for trying not to make news. The actor ask Finding Your Roots‘ Henry Louis Gates Jr. to censor his slave-owning ancestor from his family tree out of embarrassment. Gates asked Sony chief Michael Lynton for his opinion on Affleck’s plea through an email. That exchange, and consequently, Affleck’s ancestry, was made public on WikiLeaks.
So there’s no point in trying to censor now since the news is already out there. Affleck decided to come out and make a statement on the controversy.
“I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed,” he said in his statement, posted on Facebook. “The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.”
You can sympathize with his case, but fixing such a past isn’t as simple as censoring — even though Affleck isn’t directly responsible for it. Read the statement taken from his Facebook page below.
MORE LINKS ON THE URBAN DAILY
Ben Affleck Had Ancestor’s Slave Owning Past Scrubbed From PBS Show
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