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    TheWhiteBorpoHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 10:53am

    Did Affleck not realize this would make him look far worse? You can't help who your ancestors are, but you can definitely help being a shady weirdo who purposely goes on a show about finding your roots, and then tries to hide them when they're not all abolitionists.

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      revarthurbellingTheWhiteBorpo
      4/18/15 10:56am

      I kinda feel for the guy. It’s not something I’d be proud of either.

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      Harbour SealTheWhiteBorpo
      4/18/15 10:57am

      I dunno, I can understand why he did it. It’s not just his life but his parents and grandparents lives that get affected too.

      Our ancestors can’t be perfect, but I’m guessing he had no clue beforehand and it came as quite an unpleasant shock.

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    dkfree2Hudson Hongo
    4/18/15 11:48am

    What are the odds that any family with white ancestors from 18th/19th century US do NOT have slave owners among their descendants? Surely there are some pure blue bloods who always married w/in their “free” communities but going back THAT long, the likelihood that someone, some time owned slaves has to be quite high, right?

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      LibrarySchoolDropoutdkfree2
      4/18/15 11:54am

      It's not just white people. If you have slave ancestors you probably have slave owner ancestors, too.

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      mind if I Slytherin?dkfree2
      4/18/15 11:55am

      Unless you come from a strong family line of Quakers and poor people, the odds are nil. For anybody. It was a little rare, but Black people owned slaves too. So did Native Americans (of certain tribes), and Hispanics/S. Americans have their own sordid history of slaving various peoples.

      Nobody is safe from asshole ancestors.

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    spanther22aHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 10:59am

    How many Americans had slaves? I always thought it was the wealthy landowners i.e. basically the 1%ers

    I’m not american so sorry if this is a dumb question.

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      Lighticespanther22a
      4/18/15 11:02am

      Wealthy landowners certainly owned a major percentage of the slaves but they weren’t the norm. The average Southern slaveowner was the equivalent of upper middle class and only owned one or two slaves.

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      PlantinMoretusspanther22a
      4/18/15 11:03am

      Depends on the place and time. Lots of regular non-rich Americans had one or two slaves. Really rich people had dozens or even hundreds. Mostly in the South.

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    reggiebushlateralHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 10:55am

    I have a hard time thinking of Affleck as a “megastar”, but ok. I guess he is Batman.

    Also in emails, tree hugger Leo using the company plane a lot. Very harmful to the environment, Leo. According to Radar Online:

    “But secretly, RadarOnline.com has learned, recent charges that he is a “hypocrite” could hold some weight: According to newly leaked Sony emails, the actor happily availed himself of more than $200,000 worth of private jet travel in just six weeks in 2014.”

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      mattreggiebushlateral
      4/18/15 11:23am

      I don’t know. I guess you can count someone a megastar if they are in the top 10 highest paid actors in hollywood. Which I think he might be ... or at least he is in top 10 for earnings (if not per movie)

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      dontcallmemimireggiebushlateral
      4/18/15 12:39pm

      Do you mean multi-Academy Award/Golden Globe winner Ben Affleck? What's your criteria?

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    NotthebeesthomasjayHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 11:01am

    It happened to Anderson Cooper and he rolled with it.

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      Zsa Zsa GaborgNotthebeesthomasjay
      4/18/15 12:18pm

      Right? All he would have to do is express that the information came as an unpleasant surprise, and literally everyone watching would have nodded in sympathy and forgotten it by the next day. And honestly it’s morbidly interesting, like finding out an ancestor was an infamous murderer or a conquistador or something. Nothing to brag about, but why be ashamed about what some dude in your bloodline did hundreds of years before you were born?

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      Myrna MinkoffNotthebeesthomasjay
      4/18/15 12:41pm

      Anderson Cooper is a fucking Vanderbilt. I doubt he was surprised.

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    Blood Cubic ZirconiaHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 11:06am

    “would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman”

    This guy is a real joker.

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      GELLA - LLAPBlood Cubic Zirconia
      4/18/15 11:10am

      +100

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      pfinlay01Blood Cubic Zirconia
      4/18/15 11:48am

      This comment is full of Penguin.

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    XyloHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 10:53am

    Aaand, “all things being equal” renews its title of Second Most Badly Used Phrase Of All Time.

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      Cam/ronXylo
      4/18/15 10:59am

      It’s up there with “Everyone is entitled to their opinions!”

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    sizor_sisterHudson Hongo
    4/18/15 10:54am

    Looks like Affleck is about learn all about the Streisand effect.

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      NomdePruneHudson Hongo
      4/18/15 11:00am

      This surprises me because instead of censoring the info, he could have used it as an opportunity to discuss this issue. Most of us are going to have at least one ancestor who did something shameful, and with the increasing popularity of researching one’s genealogy, information like this is likely to come to light for anyone who digs deep enough.

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        Cool ArrowNomdePrune
        4/18/15 11:08am

        Now that would’ve been good PR. Running towards a problem is always better than away.

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        NeverAfterBurnerNomdePrune
        4/18/15 11:28am

        His glass ego didn’t allow for that kind of thought. Every single human being who has every existed has had a shady/evil ancestor. No one can hide from the shear probability, and no one should have to deny it, unless one is continuing their shady ancestor’s legacy. SO, is Ben a slave owner himself?

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      UmmYeahOkHudson Hongo
      4/18/15 11:47am

      I have ancestors that have lived in this country (or well, before it was a country) since the 1700s, possibly even longer. I have no idea if any of them owned slaves. I do however know that they were landowners, some of which received their land from the king, NOT from Native Americans. Odds are pretty good that someone on some branch somewhere owned slaves at some point in time. If I found proof, I would feel bad about it, but not terrified that the world would know. I mean, think about it. How many Germans today have had an ancestor who was a member of the Nazi party?


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