- A commercial from Ancestry.com depicted a white man proposing to what appeared to be an enslaved black woman in the South.
- It went viral on Thursday, drawing a backlash.
- Ancestry.com apologized for the ad and said it would remove it from circulation.
- Visit INSIDER.com for more stories.
Ancestry.com apologized for commercial that critics said romanticized slavery by depicting a white man proposing to a black woman in what appeared to be the antebellum South.
The video went viral on Thursday when INSIDER producer Emmanuel Ocbazghi posted it to Twitter after noticing it on the company's YouTube page.
"People, myself included, were upset because the ad seriously romanticizes the concept of slavery," Ocbazghi said. "That's not to say the situation presented in the ad has never happened before, but the far likelier scenario of course, isn't nearly that optimistic."
ooooh my god LMAOOO who approved this ancestry commercial??? pic.twitter.com/Isy0k4HTMA
— manny (@mannyfidel) April 18, 2019
speaking of white saviors, watch my video on the concept and then go ahead and um follow the accounthttps://t.co/TQOMqVVcU4
— manny (@mannyfidel) April 18, 2019
The commercial sparked a backlash, with people pointing out the ahistoricism of Ancestry.com's depiction.
While it’s true that 1 in 4 black folks who test their male line through DNA end up finding a white man, it ain’t because of no damn slavery love story. I’m so tired of y’all. https://t.co/UwknpDDniL
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 18, 2019
nobody:
— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) April 18, 2019
ancestry dot com: how can we overly romanticize & create an irresponsible, ahistorical depiction of the relationship between white men & black women during the period of chattel slavery that completely disregards its power dynamics & the trauma of sexual exploitation? https://t.co/s5BqnoSg9x
Oh y’all wildin wildin https://t.co/qXG9LNqvFz
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) April 18, 2019
One of about 1,000 awful things about this commercial is it ignores the fact that for black Americans - myself included - and for others in the diaspora, DNA and documentary ancestry information is as painful and traumatic as it is illuminating. These are not love stories. https://t.co/tuTpHwmnGk
— Kimberly Atkins (@KimberlyEAtkins) April 18, 2019
In a statement, Ancestry.com said it was in the process of taking down the commercial from its platforms. It's already gone from YouTube.
"Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history," the company said. "This ad was intended to represent one of those stories. We very much appreciate the feedback we have received and apologize for any offense that the ad may have caused."
Ocbazghi said that taking the commercial out of circulation was the right move.
"It's just an irresponsible depiction given how horrible those times were for black people," he said. "Imagine a black person takes an Ancestry DNA test and finds out they have a white person in their family dating back to slavery. How likely is the cause of that result going to be a consensual relationship?"
- Read more:
- How 'white savior' films like 'Green Book' hurt Hollywood
- I tried 23andMe and Helix to find out which DNA test would guess my ancestry more accurately
- 11 facts you learned about US history that are false
- Georgetown students voted overwhelmingly to increase their own tuition to create a reparations fund for descendants of slaves the university sold in 1838
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