We all have something we’d like to hide and keep secret. With that one sentence, many of you probably tensed up and thought, “Yeah, man. I hope no one finds out about that talking zit on my back!”
But sometimes our secrets are spilled and our feelings are hurt.
This is what happened when actor and director Ben Affleck made the news a few days ago. No, he wasn’t finally caught kissing Matt Damon on the mouth (unfortunately), but he was caught keeping his family secrets, well, secret when he appeared on the PBS genealogy show, “Finding Your Roots.”
Along with a variety of embarrassing emails from other celebrities or otherwise rich weirdos, the 2014 Sony hack provided us with leaked emails that suggested Affleck had lobbied the producers of the show to omit a certain blunder in his family’s past.
That blunder? Oh, just a little thing called slavery.
That’s right. One of Ben Affleck’s distant relatives owned slaves. After learning this, Affleck said in a Facebook post that he was “embarrassed” by this fact, but he was also “happy that aspect of our country’s history is being talked about.”
With racial tensions flaring up yet again in our country, this relatively tame celebrity story has greater implications than anyone might have thought.
I don’t have to take the time out to say that American slavery was an atrocious, inhumane and despicable crime. We should all know and accept that by now.
However, there’s still a thought in many oblivious white people’s minds that usually sounds like “But how is America racist? Slavery is over!”
But what people like that don’t understand about this whole slavery and oppression of African Americans thing is that white people are still benefiting from this system today.
White people benefit from the privilege of having never been owned and treated like property. White people benefit from this pervasive attack on the rights and livelihoods of people of color, but oftentimes they don’t recognize it.
As a white person, it’s quite easy to respond to African Americans’ cries of oppression and racism with a simple, “But I didn’t own slaves! I have a black friend! I’m not racist! I love Young Thug!”
And that’s the problem right there. No, not Young Thug, but the idea that current non-slave-owning white people had nothing to do with slavery and are therefore blameless when it comes to our country’s issues with race.
Affleck attempting to hide this part of his family’s history follows this trend. What he (and all white people) should have initially done was own up to his family’s past and attempt to recognize how it affected his life today.
Although he later addressed this issue in the aforementioned Facebook post, we can learn from his problematic behavior of trying to hide and ignore this horrible part of his family history.
I’m white and my family is from southern Louisiana — I’ve come to terms with the fact that one of my distant relatives most likely owned slaves or worked on a plantation. We all need to own up to this sometimes shocking or embarrassing possibility and understand that it still affects our lives today.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued only 152 years ago. Due to recent cases of police brutality and racial profiling, it’s clear that America still has a long way to go.
Nevertheless, it is up to current generations of white folks to admit that they still reap the benefits of this inequality that stemmed from our ancestors literally owning other people. The situation in our country will not fix itself.
SidneyRose Reynen is a 20-year-old film and media arts and German sophomore from New Orleans. You can reach her on Twitter @sidneyrose_TDR.