That's fine - but southern culture wrote into their constitutions the desire to own other people. That's indefensible. There are ways to remember those that came before us without honoring that.

In the case of Anderson Cooper he didn't feel ashamed about his ancestry - but he felt his ancestor was in the wrong and deserved being killed by one of his slaves.

This isn't about if or if not white people are good or bad, it's about understanding what the perspective is like for those who were not on the side of privilege historically. A southerner might think "I'm honoring my ancestry" by raising a statue of a confederate general. But to people who's ancestors are slaves it's honoring the worst aspect of their ancestry.

None of this is about putting white people down, it's about pointing out when white people can be insensitive (unintentionally) to the experience of others. You can double down or you can say "Oh, I didn't realize it might look that way. I don't want to be part of that."