A resurfaced clip of Jennifer Garner has gotten the Daredevil star under fire after she is seen asking Regina King about her ancestors.
The comments were made during a 2017 episode of Dinner Party: My American Experience, a Netflix series that brings celebrities together to “discuss their roots, patriotism, religion and modern America’s complexities.”
It all began after King recalled her childhood in Los Angeles, stating she was proud to be “born and bred” in the city.
“It’s, I think, a very cool thing and I kind of wear it on my chest very proudly because so many people say, ‘Oh, LA is this and LA is that,’ and I’m like, well, you’re not from LA, so you don’t really know it,” King said.
Garner then asks: “But do you know where your ancestors are from?”
King tries to mitigate the triggering question and replies with a laugh “Well, yeah…. They were part of the triangle slave trade. From Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Senegal, but my parents are both from the South.”
The quick exchange was then posted online, prompting backlash. At the time of this writing, the clip has been seen over 15 million times on Twitter.
Users began to comment on the exchange, with one suggesting that her remarks were racist.
“Jennifer Garner actually did the “but where are you really from?” to Regina King as if she hadn’t JUST said she was born and grew up in LA. Way to be THAT racist JG.”
“They don’t think we have a culture. A stark example of which was Jennifer Garner’s microaggression laden questioning of Regina King. They think that everything we have came from them,” another wrote.
“Jennifer Garner’s condescending question about Regina King’s ancestors is steeped in Jennifer Garner *not* expecting Regina King to have an answer, & deflects from Regina’s point about LA transplants/gentrifiers.
Nasty work of attempting to discredit a person, & their point!”
“I really don’t like how Jennifer Garner asked Regina King that question after Regina said she’s from LA. The way she was staring at her while she was talking too just was…”
At the time of this writing, Garner has yet to respond to the remark she made.
