Top Henry Louis Gates Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Henry Louis Gates Biography

Henry Louis Gates

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950 in Keyser, West Virginia) is an American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual who currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He discovered what are considered the first books by African-American writers, both women, and has published extensively on appreciating African-American literature as part of the Western canon.

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Henry Louis Gates Quotes

I knew that there were black people in Africa, of course, unfortunately because of movies such as 'Tarzan'.

Africa, Black, Course, Movie, People, Unfortunately

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. "

Golf, Hockey, Picasso, Say, Years

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.

Economic, Ending, Hypocrisy, Slavery, Thinking, Trade

I didn't feel particularly close to my father.

Close, Father, Feels, Particularly

It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people.

Black, People, Things, White

Really, the values under which my generation was raised in the '50s were immigrant values even though we weren't immigrants. The greatest thing you could be was a college-educated Negro.

College, Educated, Generations, Immigrant, Thing, Values

The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.

Firsts, Knowledge, Respect, Steps, Tolerance, Toward

Politicians will not put forth programs aimed at the problems of poor blacks while their turnout remains so low.

Blacks, Low, Politician, Poor, Problem, Problems

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.

Envy, Family, Roots, Say, Slave Ships

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.

Example, Our Generation, People, Problems, Trapped, White

Our society is driven today by so much ethnic discord. We have Black Lives Matter, which I praise and celebrate. We have the demagogues stereotyping Muslims and resurrecting racist stereotypes they used to visit on us. The larger goal is to show that we are all the same, we all come from Africa, and we all have the same larger family tree. It's about the fundamental unity of the human community.

Celebrate, Community, Goal, Matter, Tree, Visit

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.

America, Country, Espoused, Founded, History, Men

Most black leaders, whether left, right or center, from Frederick Douglas and Martin Delaney on in the middle of the 19th century have not even wondered about the merits of the capitalist system.

Black, Delaney, Leader, Merit, Right, System

My family and our neighbors and friends thought of Africa and its Africans as extensions of the stereotyped characters that we saw in movies and on television in films such as 'Tarzan' and in programs such as 'Ramar of the Jungle' and 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. '

Character, Jungle, Movie, Movies, Queens, Television

I'd say imagine that you wake up one morning when you're going through a midlife crisis. You're getting divorced. Your kids won't speak to you. Their faces are covered with acne, and you have to decide why you should get out of bed. That's the career you should pick. The one that keeps you going no matter what, even if your life is falling apart. That's how I feel about my career.

Apart, Fall, Kids, Morning

All of the guests on 'Faces of America' were deeply moved by what we revealed about their ancestry. We were able to trace the ancestry of Native American writer Louise Erdrich back to 438 A. D. We found that Queen Noor is descended from royalty, and that's before she married King Hussein of Jordan.

America, Descended, Guests, Kings, Native American, Queens

My mom, God rest her soul - she liked nicknames. In the womb she named me Skip. There was another black guy in Piedmont, W. Va. , and his name was Skip. They called him Big Skip, and I was Little Skip.

God, Guy, Mom, Names, Piedmont, Womb

I want to be remembered as someone who tried to bring the story of our ancestors to the broadest possible audience. I want to be remembered as a man who loved his race.

Bring, Broadest, Loved, Men, Race, Stories

You notice patterns. White guests often are mortified - that word again - when they learn their ancestors owned slaves. But I've never had a black guest who was upset to learn about white ancestry that probably involved forced sexual relations.

Black, Guests, Notice, Patterns, Upset, White

We really invented the genre of tracing family trees and going back as far as we could on the paper trail. When the paper trail disappeared, we used DNA analysis. The technology was just being invented that allowed you to trace ancestry through DNA.

Ancestry, Disappeared, Dna, Technology, Trail, Tree

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