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Henry Louis Gates Quotes

My goal is to get everybody in America to do their family tree Picture Quote #1

I didn’t feel particularly close to my father Picture Quote #1

I don’t think the riots derailed the civil rights movement Picture Quote #1

Brazil is the second blackest nation in the world Picture Quote #1

Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you Picture Quote #1

So when you do your family tree and Margaret Cho does hers, and... Wanda Sykes and John Legend... we’re adding to the database that scholars can then draw from to generalize about the complexity of the American experience. And that’s the contribution that family trees make to broader scholarship Picture Quote #1

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You can say I had a severe case of ‘Roots’ envy. I wanted to be like Alex Haley, and I wanted to be able to... do my family tree back to the slave ship and then reverse the Middle Passage, as I like to put it, and find the tribe or ethnic group that I was from in Africa Picture Quote #1

Keeping the Union together, freeing slaves and being assassinated all added up to creating ‘Lincoln the myth.’ He overcame a lot of his own prejudices and became what many would consider the first black man’s president Picture Quote #1

It’s very lonely being a prominent black intellectual at an institution where you’re the only prominent black intellectual. That was the model that was followed in the late 60s when black studies started. You’d get one here and one there and one here, like Johnny Appleseed Picture Quote #1

Color categories are on steroids in Latin America. I find that fascinating. It’s very difficult for Americans, particularly African-Americans to understand or sympathize with Picture Quote #1

We can’t all work in the inner city. And, I don’t even think that it is incumbent upon an African-American intellectual to be concerned in their work with problems of race and class. It’s just one of the things, that we here at the DuBois Institute, are concerned about Picture Quote #1

The sad truth is that the civil rights movement cannot be reborn until we identify the causes of black suffering, some of them self-inflicted. Why can’t black leaders organize rallies around responsible sexuality, birth within marriage, parents reading to their children and students staying in school and doing homework? Picture Quote #1

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The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment Picture Quote #1

The Dominican Republic says ‘We’re black behind the ears.’ And in Mexico, ‘there’s a black grandma in the closet.’ They know, they’ve just been intermarrying for a long time. But if we did the DNA of everyone in Mexico a whole lot of people would have a whole lot of black in them Picture Quote #1

So, Mexico, Brazil, they wanted their national culture to be ‘blackish’ - really brown, a beautiful brown blend. And finally, I discovered that in each of these societies the people at the bottom are the darkest skinned with the most African features Picture Quote #1

Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique. When you’re willing to stand up within the group and say, ‘It is wrong for Black people to be anti-Semitic,’ or ‘It is wrong for America to discriminate against persons of African descent and made them slaves and based its wealth upon free labor,’ it’s crucial to say that Picture Quote #1

No one thinks of Mexico and Peru as black. But Mexico and Peru together got 700,000 Africans in the slave trade. The coast of Acapulco was a black city in the 1870s. And the Veracruz Coast on the gulf of Mexico and the Costa Chica, south of Acapulco are traditional black lands Picture Quote #1

It’s important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact, Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent, subtle and sophisticated people, with organized societies and great art Picture Quote #1

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I rebel at the notion that I can’t be part of other groups, that I can’t construct identities through elective affinity, that race must be the most important thing about me. Is that what I want on my gravestone: Here lies an African American? Picture Quote #1

Cuba is like going to a whole other planet. It’s so different but it’s so similar to the United States, to Miami. It’s like a doppelgaenger. It’s the mirror image. And I have no doubt, that once Cuba becomes democratic, that it will be the favorite tourist destination for Americans Picture Quote #1

But you see, our society is still trapped in this binary, black/white logic and that has had some very positive implications for our generation. It’s had some very negative ones as well and one of the negative ones is that it creates enormous identity problems for people who have one black ancestor and all white ancestors for example Picture Quote #1

I want to get into the educational DNA of American culture. I want 10 percent of the common culture, more or less, to be black Picture Quote #1

Dr. King’s Nobel Prize had a more powerful transforming effect on him than I think he realized at the time Picture Quote #1

I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate and scared. And when you’re desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward - well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism Picture Quote #1

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I give a speech to the black freshmen at Harvard each year, and I say, ‘You can like Mozart and ice hockey...’ - and then I used to say ‘golf,’ but Tiger took over golf! - ‘and Picasso and still be as black as the ace of spades.’ Picture Quote #1

Ending the slave trade was contrary to British economic interests. For all its limitations and hypocrisies - British slavery itself, of course, still continued to exist - I still think it was a great moment in human history Picture Quote #1

Where do real conversations about citizenship occur? In our schools. Think about the things you learned in first grade. My Country ‘Tis of Thee, I pledge allegiance to the flag, America the Beautiful Picture Quote #1

If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you’re related to them. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA Picture Quote #1

If you don’t tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It’s important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change Picture Quote #1

I would like to do a series about sequencing the human genome, and also analyze more human diversity among other ethnic groups - a ‘Faces of America 2.’ Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

My goal is to get everybody in America to do their family tree (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I didn’t feel particularly close to my father (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I don’t think the riots derailed the civil rights movement (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Brazil is the second blackest nation in the world (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) So when you do your family tree and Margaret Cho does hers, and... Wanda Sykes and John Legend... we’re adding to the database that scholars can then draw from to generalize about the complexity of the American experience. And that’s the contribution that family trees make to broader scholarship (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) You can say I had a severe case of ‘Roots’ envy. I wanted to be like Alex Haley, and I wanted to be able to... do my family tree back to the slave ship and then reverse the Middle Passage, as I like to put it, and find the tribe or ethnic group that I was from in Africa (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Keeping the Union together, freeing slaves and being assassinated all added up to creating ‘Lincoln the myth.’ He overcame a lot of his own prejudices and became what many would consider the first black man’s president (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) It’s very lonely being a prominent black intellectual at an institution where you’re the only prominent black intellectual. That was the model that was followed in the late 60s when black studies started. You’d get one here and one there and one here, like Johnny Appleseed (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Color categories are on steroids in Latin America. I find that fascinating. It’s very difficult for Americans, particularly African-Americans to understand or sympathize with (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) We can’t all work in the inner city. And, I don’t even think that it is incumbent upon an African-American intellectual to be concerned in their work with problems of race and class. It’s just one of the things, that we here at the DuBois Institute, are concerned about (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) The sad truth is that the civil rights movement cannot be reborn until we identify the causes of black suffering, some of them self-inflicted. Why can’t black leaders organize rallies around responsible sexuality, birth within marriage, parents reading to their children and students staying in school and doing homework? (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) The Dominican Republic says ‘We’re black behind the ears.’ And in Mexico, ‘there’s a black grandma in the closet.’ They know, they’ve just been intermarrying for a long time. But if we did the DNA of everyone in Mexico a whole lot of people would have a whole lot of black in them (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) So, Mexico, Brazil, they wanted their national culture to be ‘blackish’ - really brown, a beautiful brown blend. And finally, I discovered that in each of these societies the people at the bottom are the darkest skinned with the most African features (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique. When you’re willing to stand up within the group and say, ‘It is wrong for Black people to be anti-Semitic,’ or ‘It is wrong for America to discriminate against persons of African descent and made them slaves and based its wealth upon free labor,’ it’s crucial to say that (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) No one thinks of Mexico and Peru as black. But Mexico and Peru together got 700,000 Africans in the slave trade. The coast of Acapulco was a black city in the 1870s. And the Veracruz Coast on the gulf of Mexico and the Costa Chica, south of Acapulco are traditional black lands (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) It’s important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact, Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent, subtle and sophisticated people, with organized societies and great art (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I rebel at the notion that I can’t be part of other groups, that I can’t construct identities through elective affinity, that race must be the most important thing about me. Is that what I want on my gravestone: Here lies an African American? (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Cuba is like going to a whole other planet. It’s so different but it’s so similar to the United States, to Miami. It’s like a doppelgaenger. It’s the mirror image. And I have no doubt, that once Cuba becomes democratic, that it will be the favorite tourist destination for Americans (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) But you see, our society is still trapped in this binary, black/white logic and that has had some very positive implications for our generation. It’s had some very negative ones as well and one of the negative ones is that it creates enormous identity problems for people who have one black ancestor and all white ancestors for example (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I want to get into the educational DNA of American culture. I want 10 percent of the common culture, more or less, to be black (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Dr. King’s Nobel Prize had a more powerful transforming effect on him than I think he realized at the time (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate and scared. And when you’re desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward - well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I give a speech to the black freshmen at Harvard each year, and I say, ‘You can like Mozart and ice hockey...’ - and then I used to say ‘golf,’ but Tiger took over golf! - ‘and Picasso and still be as black as the ace of spades.’ (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Ending the slave trade was contrary to British economic interests. For all its limitations and hypocrisies - British slavery itself, of course, still continued to exist - I still think it was a great moment in human history. (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) Where do real conversations about citizenship occur? In our schools. Think about the things you learned in first grade. My Country ‘Tis of Thee, I pledge allegiance to the flag, America the Beautiful. (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you’re related to them. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) If you don’t tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It’s important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change. (Henry Louis Gates Quotes) I would like to do a series about sequencing the human genome, and also analyze more human diversity among other ethnic groups - a ‘Faces of America 2.’ (Henry Louis Gates Quotes)

1 2 3