Fight Club and Glass Onion actor, Norton is an upcoming guest on the PBS show Finding Your Roots, which delves into a celebrity’s family tree. In an exclusive preview clip given to Newsweek, the actor is seen reacting to the news that his ancestors owned a family of slaves that included five little girls.
Norton is shown a picture of a 55-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman and five girls aged 10, 9, 8, 6 and 4. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informs Norton that they were all owned as slaves.
“What’s it like to see that?” Gates Jr. asked Norton.
“The short answer is, these things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it,” Norton replied. “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.”
It’s unclear from the preview clip what relation the slave owners are to Norton, when the picture was taken or where in America it was. It is known, however, that Norton is a descendant of the wealthy Rouse family. His grandfather was businessman and founder of The Rouse Company, James Rouse, while his great-grandfather was Maryland-based attorney and businessman William Goldsmith Rouse. Other members of the family, Willard Rouse II and Willard Rouse III were both wealthy real estate developers.
Norton continued his assessment of his ancestry on Finding Your Roots.
Nobody believes that slavery never happened. Everyone agrees it was very bad. We need to never forget, but also wonder what we can do tomorrow, not 200 years ago. If slavery is the biggest issue for some people, might want to fight in the parts of the world where slavery is going on RIGHT NOW. Many in African countries. I know. It’s hard to believe with all the media and activists pounding it into American’s heads, but slavery was around for thousands of years before America and much worse in most other countries even when slavery as here. Let’s work together and move FORWARD!!!
Yeah, slavery was something that blacks brought over from Africa… but it didn’t last that long here in USA… except for Democrats still keeping blacks enslaved on their Welfare/Drug Abuse/Perversions Plantation…