#historyandmemory

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Ben Affleck’s Misplaced Embarrassment

I like Ben Affleck. He is an excellent actor and producer of quality films.  He also is very involved in various public service efforts including his NGO, the Eastern Congo Initiative whose goal is to fund organizations in the Congo who support survivors of rape and sexual violence; return and reintegrate child soldiers into their communities and run community-level peace and reconciliation programs.  Ben Affleck, from what I can tell, is committed to humanitarian causes and this is all to the good.

It is then all the more surprising that apparently after participating in the PBS show “Finding Your Roots’ with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., he asked the producers to omit the discovery of a slave owner in his family.  It is surprising that he would not see what an opportunity this would give him as a humanitarian to share his obviously contrary views and also to help America reflect on the legacy of slavery.  The bottom line for Affleck and all is: there is nothing to be embarrassed about.   He is not personally responsible for what his ancestors did.  I might add, he is also not responsible for the good that some did either.  Moreover, if we are going to claim the good, we also have to claim the bad or at least allow ourselves to wrestle with it.

Ben Affleck, however,  is not alone with his selective memory.

After 25 years of teaching African and African Diaspora Studies, I often hear people of color talk about  the possibility of African queens and kings in their past.  Now, that is altogether possible. The historical record does show that at certain periods in the 350 year history of the slave trade, anyone could be sold -even kings and queens.  As I recalled stories of the slave trade in my book, African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the silence and shame, even leaders of a slave trafficking community could be sold.  This led me to conclude that if some were not free, all were not free.   But the hard truth is that some of us are descended from petty criminals because the people who were the first to be sold away were often those involved in petty crimes ( theft, adultery etc.)   That was the beginning of the trade. Things changed when it became a major commercial and transatlantic effort and then anyone could be bought and sold.

So it was a mixed bag as life is in general and we should be neither ashamed nor embarrassed. The past after all, is still the past. We celebrate what there is to celebrate and then we grapple with that which gives us pause.

So I am heartened by Mr. Affleck’s apology today and his comment that: “…the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery. It is an examination well worth continuing. I am glad that my story, however indirectly, will contribute to that discussion.”

Let’s hope everyone else comes to the same conclusion.

Posted by: Anne Bailey