PBS ACCUSES HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. OF “IMPROPER JUDGMENT” for coddling Ben Affleck who was “embarrassed” to learn that he had slave-owning ancestors. Why couldn’t Affleck have used the opportunity to show us how America should process and respond to the legacy of slavery? It was all just shallow vanity, and Gates accommodated the little man, because he was such a big man, in the realm of pop culture.