Celebrity couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have shown remorse for getting married on a southern plantation in South Carolina, back in 2012. They say they are "ashamed that in the past they allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is." People have shown criticism towards the couple for years over their wedding that took place at Boone Plantation, a place whose website highlights nine historic slave cabins on the property where people can learn "how Black Americans worked and lived" as well as the struggles that were faced. It took the recent nationwide social movements over racial injustice for the couple to publicly address it and Ryan Reynolds did just that in talking with Fast Company.
Ryan Reynolds told this to Fast Company about their wedding: "It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for...It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy. Years ago we got married again at home — but shame works in weird ways. A giant f---ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can re-frame things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t f--- up again. But re-patterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end."
Additionally Blake Lively put up a Instagram post addressing racism:
Do you think Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively owed anyone an explanation of their wedding venue choice? Should they have shown remorse? I suppose it does not hurt but I think they don't owe anyone anything and they are now drawing attention to themselves where before not as many people knew that information about them. I did not know they got married on a plantation but now I do. Regardless, there is no reason to apologize. For what? Celebrating an occasion on a piece of land that slaves once occupied; that is the argument. It's not like they were celebrating slavery. Their wedding is a separate occasion than that of slavery. Just because they got married on a beautiful piece of land, does not mean they are glorifying slavery. I understand it appears that way to some and almost makes Ryan and Blake look tone deaf towards what happened there but if we block off every piece of land for something heinous that happened there, we will never have a space, period. Think about this entire country that use to belong to the Native Americans, should we give it up and disregard it because of how some were mistreated by settlers that came here? That was not right and a stain on society at that time so by their logic, we are ignorant to even occupy any piece of this country or celebrate anything, period. The Boone Plantation is a piece of land that is a beautiful landscape that I don't think should be brushed aside, use it as an opportunity to teach about how once upon a time, that land was manicured by slaves and that was not right but now we use it as a way to honor the land, the lives that once lived there, not the stain of slavery but honoring those who went through that and remembering what never to do again. Ryan and Blake act like they themselves enslaved people on that land when they got married at Boone Plantation...my point here is just because you got married on a plantation does not mean you are a racist and you are glorifying slavery. It's a beautiful wedding venue, period. Nothing more. What do you think?
-Producer Lightning