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Censoring the far away past

sylvan8798

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sylvan8798
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May 25, 2009
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Apparently, actor Ben Affleck requested that a PBS special censor the fact that some distant ancestor owned slaves.

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity...r-slave-owning-ancestor-from-pbs-show-2015204

Full disclosure: My earliest paternal ancestors arrived in Maryland around 1645. They and their many descendents were slave owners to the end. Assorted ancestors fought on both sides of the Civil War. I have learned not to judge them by today's mores.
 
Pretty weird thing to do, but it was up to him I suppose.

You can't change your ancestors. Just live with them and deal with it in my opinion
 
sylvan8798 said:
Apparently, actor Ben Affleck requested that a PBS special censor the fact that some distant ancestor owned slaves.
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That's not what is usually meant by censorship. Anyway, I don't see the problem. It's commonplace for biographers reach some kind of agreement with their subjects about what access they will have and what topics they will write about. I consider this to be the same kind of thing.
 
theprestige said:
That's not what is usually meant by censorship. Anyway, I don't see the problem. It's commonplace for biographers reach some kind of agreement with their subjects about what access they will have and what topics they will write about. I consider this to be the same kind of thing.
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Whitewash, or sanitize would probably be better words. According to the article it is the first time that someone involved in this TV show has asked that something unsavoury they found in their ancestors' pasts be removed.
 
Still....can't....manage....to care....about....Ben Affleck.

Sorry, I tried. Maybe if he commits regicide, or voyages to Mars, or invents a.....nope, I'm fooling myself. Even if he did those things, and turned out to be a vampire robot space princess, I'd still not be able to care about Ben Affleck. He's just so dull. He's so boring that if he were cannibalizing you from the feet up you'd still fall asleep.
 
sylvan8798 said:
I have learned not to judge them by today's mores.
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I have no problem judging whatever crap my ancestors might have done by my mores. I also take no responsibility whatsoever for what those strangers did decades before I was born.
 
My grandfather was a lay preacher. I'm not proud of that. His first two names were Ivor Hercules. I'm pretty proud of that!
 
A bit of a dickish move on Afleck's part but ultimately, since I don't give a rat's ass about Afleck, it's of minor significance. Much more important, to me, is the professor who found convenient excuses to leave this "not as interesting" part out of the episode.
 
Foolmewunz said:
A bit of a dickish move on Afleck's part but ultimately, since I don't give a rat's ass about Afleck, it's of minor significance. Much more important, to me, is the professor who found convenient excuses to leave this "not as interesting" part out of the episode.
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The professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. or something, probably some slavery apologist, said what?
 
Do people really not recall who Skip Gates is? Cambridge? President Obama? "The police acted stupidly"? White House Beer Summit? Anyways, Skip says since Ben's ancestry also includes a Revolutionary War soldier, a 19th Century Spiritualist and his mother marched for Civil Rights in the '60's, well, who's got time to bring up the slave owning parts? Gotta focus on the interesting parts. Which is a sound editorial decision if that is really what it is. But it's kind of not if your subject asks you to hide parts. Then again it's really not an unflinching expose kind of program.

Other "celebrities" that were not ashamed(well, not ashamed enough to ask it to be removed) by their ancestry include Anderson Cooper and Ken Burns.

Gates is far from an apologist and has done quite a bit of work on the history of Black slaveowners in America. That is, Blacks that owned slaves not people who owned Black slaves. Well, Black people that owned Black slaves.
 
HenryLee said:
Do people really not recall who Skip Gates is? Cambridge? President Obama? "The police acted stupidly"? White House Beer Summit? Anyways, Skip says since Ben's ancestry also includes a Revolutionary War soldier, a 19th Century Spiritualist and his mother marched for Civil Rights in the '60's, well, who's got time to bring up the slave owning parts? Gotta focus on the interesting parts. Which is a sound editorial decision if that is really what it is. But it's kind of not if your subject asks you to hide parts. Then again it's really not an unflinching expose kind of program.

Other "celebrities" that were not ashamed(well, not ashamed enough to ask it to be removed) by their ancestry include Anderson Cooper and Ken Burns.

Gates is far from an apologist and has done quite a bit of work on the history of Black slaveowners in America. That is, Blacks that owned slaves not people who owned Black slaves. Well, Black people that owned Black slaves.
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I actually don't care if he's Joe The Plumber. I do care that omitting something that he'd been pestered to omit appears to be caving to the "megastar". I think having a slave owner as an ancestor is every bit as interesting as having a freedom rider in the family tree. And, more to the point, showing what an amalgam and melting pot this country is, how times change, that we are not necessarily our ancestors or relatives but ourselves,..... it's doubly interesting to have BOTH a slave owner AND a freedom rider.
 
Yesterday's "The Nightly Show" (a political comedy show for you non-Usonians) had an interview with the ghost of Affleck's slave-owning ancestor, who went on how he was ashamed of Ben for his lack of acting ability and poor movie choices: "I owned 5000 people - that's 4100 more than saw Reindeer Games!"
 
You people should be ashamed of yourselves. It's like the upcoming Batman/Superman movie doesn't even exist.
 
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