Everyone wants to know what the heck #Ancestry.com was thinking with their newest commercial that people are saying romanticized slavery.
The commercial shows a white man telling a black female slave named “Abigail” to escape with him to the north so they can be together. The commercial then says to its ancestry audience, “only you can keep the story going.”
Out of the many eyes that saw this commercial, you really have to wonder how no one stopped this atrocity before it got the stamp of approval to be published on YouTube.
After the commercial went viral on social media this week, Ancestry pulled the spot and has issued an apology for the ad, which was titled “Inseparable,” @cnn reports. In a statement sent to the media, the DNA-testing site said: “Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history. 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.”
Critics were obviously upset because they felt that the commercial painted a different picture of slavery at a time when black women were assaulted and raped by white slave owners.
“What the hell is this @Ancestry? Why do white people insist on romanticizing my Black female ancestors experiences with white men during slavery? They were raped, abused, treated like animals, beaten, and murdered by white men. Stop with the revisions,” tweeted ” Bishop Talbert Swan.
As the video ends, a “marriage certificate” appears on the screen, saying that the couple portrayed were wed in Canada back in 1857. The ad was actually published on April 2nd on YouTube, but the video went viral on Twitter Thursday and was later removed from YouTube.
What are your thoughts on this one, Roommates? Let us know.
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
