Edward Norton discovers ancestors owned slaves: He’s ‘uncomfortable’ about it

The news certainly paints a new picture of his Robert Moses film, in which Norton had Moses raping an African American employee - an incident which do not feature in the 10000000-page Robert Caro book.

With that peculiar choice and the fire fatal fire from that set, Norton seems like a weird and sketchy guy.

He makes me uncomfortable. Was never impressed with him.

What are you supposed to feel?

At least he didn’t get the episode quashed like that drunken pussy Ben Affleck.

[quote] you should be uncomfortable with them. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it,

He is so noble. I wouldn't give a damn if my ancestors owned slaves, nor the greater likelihood they escaped England for being pickpockets and horse thieves.

Humble bragging

I gave up watching Finding Your Roots.

Henry Louis Gates to white guest: Your ancestors were slave-owners. How does that make you feel?

HLG to black guest: Your ancestors were enslaved people (NB: not 'slaves'). How does that make you feel?

Same old same old, every week.

I have a very pleasant relationship with one of the descendants of the man who owned my family. I found him on Ancestry.com. He’s very nice and was happy to help me and I wasn’t the first person.

I think a lot of white people who come directly from slaveowners and have the slave records and stuff like that are usually very nice and open to helping black families find their roots.

Those are the people we rely on because black people weren’t publicly recorded during the slave era, only by the owners.

So I’m mixed. On my white side, I can go back to the fucking Vikings. On my black side, I’m pretty much stuck. I can go back to 1825 which is the birth of my 4th great grandmother because she was the first freed slave and I know about the deaths of my 5th-great grandparents Mary and Willis in 1852, who died slaves. But that’s it.

Whatever you think of Norton, he actually had a reasonable answer to the question: “The short answer is, these things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it. It’s not a judgment on you and your own life but it’s a judgment on the history of this country. It needs to be acknowledged first and foremost, and then it needs to be contended with." What more do you expect him to say?

I find it interesting Norton and Affleck have slaveowner ancestry being from Boston. It’s so crowded with European immigrants, I forget how waspy it is.

Fun fact, the first slave to Sue their way out of slavery was in Boston lol.

I'm Native American. I would love to host this show for a season, and ask not only Edward Norton but Henry Louis Gates, Will Smith, Viola Davis, et. al., how they feel about participating in the film industry, whose early epicenter (Rochester, NY) was established on land settled by the Seneca and Iroquois, who were pushed out to enable European white settlement?

Or should we just, you know, let it go?

Don’t let it go.

Why would he be uncomfortable with it? Did he get in a Time Machine and convince his ancestors to buy slaves?

Norton gave a good answer. It’s good he didn’t try to cover it up like that moron Affleck.

Norton is a quirky guy, and I find him interesting. I’m sure he’s a total pain in the ass, but I don’t have to work with him.

I bet he's known about this for a long time. And he looks it.

Henry Louis Gates rubs me the wrong way so I will not watch his show, "Finding Your Roots" on PBS.

[quote]an incident which do not feature in the 10000000-page Robert Caro book

You do realize you write this poorly on your blog, too, don't you?

Anyway good luck trying to make yourself happen on DL.

What would be the point of that kind of gotcha attempt, r11?

And are you unaware of the Civil Rights movement calling out Kodak et al. in Rochester many decades ago already? I would imagine some of those black celebs you're trying to stick it to know all about the protests in Rochester.

His late mother came from huge real estate fortune. Not sure if they were wealthy before that but with this news, perhaps plantation gentry. Mother and father ULTRA limousine liberals. Norton is guilty of nothing and should keep his trap shut unless he wants to pay out reparations from his family fortune.

He’s also a direct descendent of Pocahontas!

Remember when he was briefly hunky?

"Anyway good luck trying to make yourself happen on DL."

Genius, I'm not actually Jeff Wells.

You're calling attention to Jeff Wells after Jeff Wells got caught posting on here as one of our far-right nutjob trolls, r22. Doesn't really matter if you're him or not.

R23 when was Jeff Wells caught posting here?

I’m amazed that he’s not not as far gone as Sasha Stone.

"You're calling attention to Jeff Wells after Jeff Wells got caught posting on here as one of our far-right nutjob trolls"

LOL, what?

Speaking of Roots, Alex Haley was an admitted plagiarist.

[quote] What more do you expect him to say?

R9 He could tell us what he means by "contended with".

(I personally don't care what he thinks he means)

I mean...how is this a surprise?

The text Arthur Hailey , An American television network, and the entire black intellectual caste prayed you would never see

On the UK series Who Do You Think You Are, most of the black celebs end up in the West Indies, unsurprisingly, but more surprisingly (to them) several of them find out their black ancestors themselves owned slaves. 'I thought I'd encounter slavery, but not quite like this', one of them commented. It's usually dealt with quite sensibly.

cant watch his movies, he a known creepo..

I would wager in the US that there are a LOT of people who have both slaves and slave owners among their ancestors. Some are going to be black Americans who have a slave owner as a great-great-great etc. grandfather, but there will also be white people with Melungeon or Creole ancestry (or similar) they don't know about, with a slave as an ancestor on their mother's side, for example, and slave owners on their father's side.

Some writer? had a white male slave owner ancestor who married a slave in Haiti.

r24 he wrote a post on his blog this summer where he made a pun about how the gays on DL "don't mince words" and it got posted here, and it became pretty clear at that point that Jeff is a DLer. After being called out for being one of our straight rightwing trolls, the next day he posted on his blog that he only had a "recent fascination" with Datalounge, but the truth is that he has mentioned DL on his blog for years. He put several posts of his that mentioned DL behind a paywall, to try to hide them. Sadly for him, you can still find them via Google search.

If you look at his blog you'll see him make references to Davida's fake Clooney gossip, he also has posts that imply Ronan is transitioning, just like the troll we have on here has been doing for ages. He references the DL anti-trans threads on his blog.

Basically I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of our dumber trolls are regulars on his blog. He does not attract the brightest minds on the internet.

People in the past as well as now committed all sorts of injustices, crimes not labeled as such, though times and injustices have changed people haven't. I have no doubt that some time in the future they will be bringing up this period and the things we did wrong. Look how they treated women back then, wives, and then look at the men in Hollywood now who still do so. Some having sex covertly with children. We have problems today. There is still slavery going on in the world right now and not much is said about that.

Is he uncomfortable about having dated Courtney Love? I would be.

I thought he and Courtney were still friends?

"it became pretty clear at that point that Jeff is a DLer"

Boy, your comment features a whole lot of projection and fuzzy thinking.

Firstly, Wells puts much of his content behind his paywall. It's not necessarily to hide a conspiracy.

Secondly, his idiot buddy Jordan Ruimy frequently steals content for from this blog, so that's likely one of the reasons why Wells has read this site. Just because someone is a reader doesn't mean they are commentator.

Thirdly, I doubt that the notoriously cheap Wells would pay for the privilege to comment.

Fourthly, all the crap that Wells has pulled over the years and THIS nonsense conspiracy is what annoys you?

Lastly, this is a post about Edward Norton and slavery. Keep on track and, if you want to complain about Wells, do so on another post. No one cares about your bizarre projections.

R37, really? I think that tells me everything I need to know about Norton.

he had bad energy: mr N.

Why would it matter if ancestors that are long dead owned slaves? Personally, I don't care about anyones ancestors. I'll judge you on your own behavior.

Knowing your ancestry is like reading history. It’s very interesting and informs you of the human experience. It’s only relevant in the present to the degree that informs you in your future, e.g., don’t repeat what should not be repeated. And it certainly does not make you exceptional (hear that Harry and Megan, lol.)

Imagine what kind of scumbag would date C Love.

What’s his bag? What is wrong with him?

Used to have that genius control freak image.

My information on Courtney and Edward still being friends may be outdated. Went looking for an article about it and it's over 12 years old.

Uncomfortable?

How noble.

How absurd.

He has a big cock.

Show us, r47.

wow, love's daughter is a lil cow....

It matters because slavery is still fucking up American society in the present. Why do certain white people insist on displaying Confederate flags? It’s not because of the pretty colors.

[quote] Henry Louis Gates to white guest: Your ancestors were slave-owners. How does that make you feel?

I would say, "Well of course I was expecting this, since this is the whole point of this show."

I don't believe in the sins of the fathers staying with you on a personal level. After you've acknowledged whatever crap they did, what else do you do? You can't personally make reparations to the world. You can do your best to be part of the solution, and that's about it.

Would DL have liked it better if he had responded, "That's great!! I've always wanted to own slaved too!!"

Considering he generally seems like kind of an oddball, I thought his response seemed very thoughtful & diplomatic.

And you never know what you'll find in the family tree; I'm from a bunch of rednecks (and proud of it too!), but ancestry research shows that our family member fought for...the North! They'd be so ashamed that they fought to preserve the union only to have their stupid family members fly the confederate flag & weep over the dismantling of General Lee statues.

I don't care about Norton but this is the right reaction to have to such news.

[quote] this is the right reaction to have

Yes, R5, and it lasted a full two minutes.

Not that I care, because the past has passed.

Most African americans also have slave owners or foremen on plantations ancestors. Average African american have 20-25% of European genes from pre Civil war period, some have more.

I don't know why should a person whose great great grandmother's parents married her off to slave owner should feel more uncomfortable then the one whose great great grandmother was forced to have sex with slave owner.

We are all descended from slaves or slave owners if we go back far enough in time. Slavery was a worldwide institution, not just an American one. Ever see Spartacus?

I can’t believe people are triggered by Norton’s response. He was sober, thoughtful and addressed his family history both in historical context and through his thoughts on contemporary America. What’s the problem?

R59 I would say kudos to Norton if he meant it sincerely and if it wasn’t because of so fashionable pandering with fake white liberal guilt.

“Fake white liberal guilt”, r60?

He nothing overtly controversial, nothing implying he is a socialist. or a Biden-lover or pro-BLM. He basically just said it’s some heavy shit.

What did you want him to do, tell Gates “slaves? Tell that to the Jews in Egypt!” and hang out the confederate flag?

People forget that the North had a lot of slaves too. New York had one of the larger slave populations in the country. And there's a sizeable African Americans who not have only Northern roots but also descend from free people of color communities like the ones in Boston, New York and Pennsylvania. Though majority are Southern slave descendents and mixed with the Northern freeman descendants.

Its obvious if your ancestors had slaves as it was just four or five generations ago. Mine had a sugar cane plantation and that sugar wasn’t going to chop itself. There’s not much you can do about it now.

Most white Americans have English and Scottish ancestry who were the primary slave owners and employers of white indentured servants, maids and field hands. So you had them raping Native, black and poor white women equally

That great great Cherokee grandma which white people up down and down the Eastern seaboard and South claim was likely a light skinned black person. Ditto for that great great Cherokee grandma Black people claim, that was just a light skinned Black person. Those high cheekbones are African.

Every single person will find a wide range of characters in any thorough ancestry search. Although we focus on the noble and the winners, there are an equal number, if not many more losers, scoundrels, thieves and other criminals. We cannot take credit for the good of them or be blamed for the sins of our fathers. It is just interesting and may give us some pride or discomfort. What more could he say?

[quote]Most white Americans have English and Scottish ancestry

Link? I don't think that's true. German/Scandinavian and Irish are extremely prevalent as well. I think British ethnicities are most common but I don't think they constitute the majority of white Americans. A plurality, sure, but not "most."

I think he’s just trying to get cast in the Julia Roberts Harriet Tubman biopic.

My dad spent his career at IBM, a company that profited handsomely during the Third Reich, in a very sordid and immoral relationship. IBM revenues subsequently significantly made me who I am today.

Everyone has a compromised history, and compromised present if you go scratching around a little. How many good vaccines finally made it to the developing world? Which countries are collapsing financially and environmentally to keep the rich countries so very comfortable?

These arguments are MORE than juvenile. Poor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He was my prof at Cornell and was merely adequate. He should have abandoned the semiotics and identity politics in the 90s and done more serious history or more serious literary criticism.

Semiotics and post structuralism, political economy, was meant FOR PLAYING, and then it is fun. But such were the times that middling intellects built careers on it, in dead middle brow seriousness, (and long after the French dropped it), and they destroyed their minds in the process. Professor Gates became a nasty cunt, a name-dropping, money grubbing star professor by the 90s and hasn't changed or grown since.

Agreed, HL Gates is a minor talent and a total fraud. He is always gleeful when he finds a white celebrity with slave-owning ancestry or an African-American who learns that his Native American ancestry is a family myth. As for his own ancestry, he adores his Irish roots. Also, when he profiles Latinos and reveals their partial African ancestry, why does he never cite the "one-drop" rule and ask them why they don't consider themselves "Black"?

Apart from Gates, the most pitiful guests on this show are the African-American athletes and entertainers who are stunned to find out that some of their ancestors were enslaved. How did they think they got to America? A spaceship?

I eat piles and piles of shit!

This episode had Edward and Julia Roberts, who discovered they are distant cousins - sometimes the researchers find connections to other guests on the show (Norah O'Donnell was related to Henry Louis Gates himself) but this was a first, to find a connection between the two guests appearing in that particular episode.

Chip Gates is irritating. I don't understand what the big deal is? African American is a more of an ethnic group than a race. Creole is a cultural-linguistic group similar to Latino. Most of the world sees Americans are mixed breeds. Yet Americans ironically still think in racial purity and act surprised they aren't 100% this or not. Even European and African groups are mixed. Most Americans don't have Native American blood because Natives were victims of genocide and forced removal that occured very early on.

Edward Norton discovers he likes COCK: He's uncomfortable about it.

Gates' shows on PBS always struck me as very 101 level - I say that as a positive, not a negative. He's trying to get the unwashed masses to understand some basics.

Of course there's underlying currents of: we can't forget our history. And: we're all immigrants. (Well, most of us.) It's a sort of genius way to bring celebrities to the table. For Dee Plorable who might be watching at home, a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down and all that sort of thing.

R74 I'm sure Norton is no stranger to cock.

What's also interesting is how underreported and downplayed English and British Isles ancestry is. Many white Americans and Canadians are so surprised when they get more English, Scottish or Welsh than Irish, German, Italian, Swedish, etc. Most African Americans are part British Isles too and have names like Smith, Williams, Johnson and Washington. White Southerners and lower Midwesterners are especially very British in DNA.

R75 Yes, I concede that take. I'm the snarky one at R69. For star professors and public intellectuals of Gates' generation, I prefer the kooky and always amusing Cornel West. He's in the French tradition of having fun with it.

I would suck Eddie's cock.

....

Ancestry is one of my hobbies. I've not encountered any slaveowners in my direct family line, but I have found it in extended cousin lines.

My 4th GGF was a Revolutionary War soldier in Virginia (as were 4 of his brothers). Veterans were eligible for bounty land grants in new states/territories. My ancestor took land in Ohio with 2 brothers in 1803; the other two brothers went to KY and their descendants in this same program. Some of the KY family eventually owned slaves.

It is unlikely that or my VA ancestors owned slaves prior to 1800. My family arrived in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1730s which did not have any plantation culture or mass agriculture.

I thought my family would not be slaveholders - most were in PA/OH or Iowa. But there is one branch in VA for a time. I still think they were too poor to be slaveholders and may have been indentured servants themselves but it's the one branch where some ???? exists.

People like OP and media orgs like The Post won't be happy unless you go full on White-Grievance and justifying slavery. Then they'll think that you're not PERFORMING WOKENESS.

OP repeated what the article said. Someone needs to change their bloody tampon.

Let me tell you something, darling. We were slaves in Egypt for 300 years, and you know what? We fucking got over it. You don't see us with our hands out, wanting reparations.

He spose to be a real mutha to work with.

Ed Norton's ancestors owned slaves- my goodness

I wonder if Ralph Kramden's ancestors owned slaves too

The counties of Java, India and China are full of slaves.

Isn't he from an old money upper middle-class WASP family? He always seemed preppy as hell. And his roots are deep. Not shocking given most slaveowners were wealthy Anglos.

RICH. RICH RICH. But I don't know how old the money is. Recent mid-century killing in real estate

gripey grouchy and grumpy toad.

Who was/is obsessed with the tits of Salma Hayek.

mrs louis vuitton, ick.

Never understood how this guy is famous/successful.......flabbergasted.. i mean look at him.

[quote] how they feel about participating in the film industry, whose early epicenter (Rochester, NY) was established on land settled by the Seneca and Iroquois, who were pushed out to enable European white settlement? Or should we just, you know, let it go?

r11 You sound like a bit of an idiot. First, the Seneca and Iroquois were conquered by a more powerful "tribe". That's the history of every people on earth. And the Seneca and the Iroquois conquered others to get that land.

Second, how in hell is the "film industry" responsible for renting space on land which the Iroquois & Seneca had left over 200 years ago?