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" My father lived to be 97 and played bridge every day up to the end, so I've got a 50 percent chance of living a long life like him. "
Henry Louis Gates
End
Bridge
Chance
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" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
God
Mom
Rest
" Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs. "
Henry Louis Gates
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Everyone
" My grandfather was coloured, my father was Negro, and I am Black. "
Henry Louis Gates
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I Am
" You can find virtually everybody black back as far as the 1870 census. Why 1870? That's when the ex-slaves first have surnames. But if you find your great-great-grandfather in 1870 and it says he's 50, that means he was born in 1820 and you're back to 1820 already. For an American that's pretty damned good, you know? "
Henry Louis Gates
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" Remember, I have a Ph.D. in English literature. "
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" 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. "
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" My brother and I had a really privileged relationship with my parents... They treated us like adults. "
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Like
Us
" 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
Me
Race
Rebel
" 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
Great
People
Culture
" Diversity doesn't mean black and white only. "
Henry Louis Gates
White
Diversity
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" 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. "
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She
American
Queen
" 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
Tiger
You
Speech
" The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up. "
Henry Louis Gates
You
Black
History
" First we have to recognize that the cause of poverty is both structural and behavioral. And the first thing about the behavior part is that we need a moral revolution within the African American community. Look - no white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager. "
Henry Louis Gates
Revolution
Community
Black
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
Need
History
Black
" I believe in the law. I think we have a great system of justice. But I do think that system of justice has been corrupted by racism and classism. I think it's difficult for 'poor people' - poor white people, brown people - to be treated fairly before the law in the same way that upper-class people are. "
Henry Louis Gates
Great
Racism
People
" 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
Family
DNA
Going
" Ever since I watched 'Roots,' I've dreamed of tracing my African ancestry and helping other people do the same. "
Henry Louis Gates
Roots
Ancestry
Same
" 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
America
Understand
Very
" I knew that there were black people in Africa, of course, unfortunately because of movies such as 'Tarzan.' "
Henry Louis Gates
Black
Because
People
" What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president, who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that, he is a centrist, just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life. "
Henry Louis Gates
Life
Black
History
" Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried. "
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People
History
Lost
" It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people. "
Henry Louis Gates
People
Surprise
Together
" There are two things that have always haunted me: the brutality of the European traders and the stories I've heard about Africans selling other Africans into slavery. "
Henry Louis Gates
Two
Slavery
Always
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
Values
Generation
Immigrant
" I have no plans to slow down. "
Henry Louis Gates
Slow
Down
Plans
" Very few, if any, first-generation black or white or Asian kids will pursue a Ph.D. They'll pursue the professions for economic security. Many will go to law school and/or business school. "
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Black
Security
School
" Let's face it - think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine and flies. How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth? "
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Day
War
Think
" For as long as I can remember, I have been passionately intrigued by 'Africa,' by the word itself, by its flora and fauna, its topographical diversity and grandeur; but above all else, by the sheer variety of the colors of its people, from tan and sepia to jet and ebony. "
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Diversity
People
Remember
" I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten. "
Henry Louis Gates
Prison
Think
Want