Ben Affleck slammed by hometown Boston Globe as a 'white liberal' who hides the 'truth about racism'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A Boston newspaper has reportedly denounced Ben Affleck as a ’white liberal' who hides the 'truth about racism', years after the actor attempted to obscure the fact that he is descended from slave owners.
The ‘Gone Girl’ star’s past was brought to light by The Boston Globe's columnist Renée Graham in an editorial piece titled 'Ben Affleck and white liberals’ discomfort with Black history' which was published on Tuesday, February 28. In the editorial, Graham talked about Affleck’s 2014 'Finding Your Roots' episode, which omitted footage from the moment where the actor discovered his slave-owning ancestry, according to Daily Mail.
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The columnist blasted Affleck for urging the producers to cut out the footage in order to protect his family as she said he "silently [endorses] a white supremacist history of this nation."
"Instead of reckoning with a truth that has tainted the marrow of this nation — long before it was a nation — for more than four centuries, Affleck chose to protect his small piece of the white purity myth," Graham wrote in the article.
'It gives me kind of a sagging feeling to see'
At the time of his episode’s release, Affleck reportedly asked PBS producers to take out the clip because he was severely embarrassed about his family’s history. "It gives me kind of a sagging feeling to see, uh, a biological relationship to that. But, you know, there it is, part of our history," Affleck said in the cut segment, according to Graham. The article also claimed that Affleck has 'discomfort' with Black history.
In the article, Graham referred to Affleck's tragic mistake and asserted that refusing to accept history only causes the nation to regress. "Honest conversations about this nation’s origin story are now met with derision and backlash," Graham wrote. "With each move away from the truth we drag it along and what remains unspoken and unresolved weighs this nation down."
'I didn't want any television show about my family'
However, Affleck issued an apology as soon as the transcript of the cut clip was released to the public. "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," he wrote on social media in 2015. "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." The ‘Justice League’ star continued by outlining his justification for keeping the information a secret and the necessity to safeguard his family, according to BBC.
"It's important to remember that this isn't a news program. Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable," he explained. "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."