4th August, 2020
After eight years of marital bliss, Hollywood couple, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have apologised to the black community over their ”plantation wedding venue”.
In an interview with Fast Company magazine, Ryan Reynolds said ”It was a giant f**king mistake, It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for”.
The couple got married in 2012 at Boone Hall, a former slave plantation in South Carolina. They however got married again a few years back at their home.
Black Lives Matter protests have changed some behaviours and mindset. An example of it is Ryan and Blake’s regret for their choice of wedding venue.
“Shame works in weird ways. 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.”
“A giant f–king mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,” he continued.
“It doesn’t mean you won’t f–k up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
“We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car.
“We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out. We can’t imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past, we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.”
The couple continued, “It’s the least we can do to honour not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, but all the Black men and women who have been killed when a camera wasn’t rolling.”