[ad_1]
Ancestry.com is excused Thursday and announced the publication of a controversial announcement featuring an interracial couple evoking the possibility of fleeing north during the Civil War period, after a violent reaction in line.
The advertisement, originally published on the company's YouTube page earlier this month, described two "lovers" (according to the advertising legend) running in the streets of a 19th-century city in the south of the United States, before stopping to discuss the possibility of heading north.
"Abigail," says the white man in the advertisement to the woman, who is black. "We can escape to the north, there is a place where we can be together, on the other side of the border."
"Do you want to go with me?" he asks while the advertisement erases in black while showing the text, "without you, the story stops here."
Critics of the advertisement said that she was whitening the story, mistakenly describing the rape of slaves by slave owners as a consensual relationship.
"What is this @Ancestry? Why do whites insist on romancing my black ancestor experiences with white men during slavery?" wrote Bishop Talbert Swan, Regional President of the NAACP.
What is it? @Ancestry?
Why do whites insist on romancing my experiences as black ancestors with whites during slavery?They were raped, abused, treated like animals, beaten and murdered by white men. Stop with revisions.pic.twitter.com/cDEWdkzJPm
– Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) April 18, 2019
"They have been raped, abused, treated like animals, beaten and murdered by white men, stop with revisions."
The company apologized "for any infraction that the announcement might have caused" in a statement made on Thursday at BuzzFeed News, and the ad could no longer be found on the YouTube page of Ancestry.
"Ancestry is committed to telling important stories of history," the company said. "The purpose of this advertisement was to represent one of these stories, and we appreciate the feedback we received and we apologize for any offense that the advertisement may have caused."
[ad_2]
Source link