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" People who own property feel a sense of ownership in their future and their society. They study, save, work, strive and vote. And people trapped in a culture of tenancy do not. "
Henry Louis Gates
Vote
Work
Society
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" There are just so many stories that are buried on family trees. "
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" Well, certainly one of the ironies of the success of affirmative action is that the middle class within the black community no longer lives within 'black community' by and large. "
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" 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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" Ever since I watched 'Roots,' I've dreamed of tracing my African ancestry and helping other people do the same. "
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" 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
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" My grandfather was coloured, my father was Negro, and I am Black. "
Henry Louis Gates
Father
Am
I Am
" A more humane form of capitalism is about the best I think we can get. Which might sound very reformist or conservative, but that's basically where I am. "
Henry Louis Gates
Sound
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I Am
" 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
" Politicians will not put forth programs aimed at the problems of poor blacks while their turnout remains so low. "
Henry Louis Gates
Will
Problems
Poor
" 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
Ship
Tree
You
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
She
American
Queen
" 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
" 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
" One must learn how to be black in America. "
Henry Louis Gates
Must
Black
America
" I'm a tech geek. Whenever I read about something new, I think to myself, How can I take this and make it black? "
Henry Louis Gates
New
Myself
Black
" Lincoln had a tremendous capacity for personal growth - more than any other American President. "
Henry Louis Gates
Other
American
Growth
" The most ironic outcome of the black Civil Rights movement has been the creation of a new black middle class which is increasingly separate from the black underclass. "
Henry Louis Gates
Class
New
Black
" It's not white versus black any more, it's haves versus have-nots. Unless the black middle-classes unite to promote the interests of the black underclass, tension between them is inevitable. What we, the black middle class have to do, is think of a strategy to avert that. "
Henry Louis Gates
White
Black
Class
" 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 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
Culture
Want
Black
" Fortunately, in President Obama, the child of an African and an American, we finally have a leader who is uniquely positioned to bridge the great reparations divide. "
Henry Louis Gates
Bridge
Child
Great
" 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
Destination
Mirror
Miami
" 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
American
You
Know
" In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the saints are black. "
Henry Louis Gates
Before
Here
Most
" The Right insists that anyone can escape poverty by working hard but that is simply not the case. "
Henry Louis Gates
Right
Working Hard
Poverty
" Lincoln would love the fact that Obama is such a great conciliator, trying to transcend ideology. "
Henry Louis Gates
Great
Trying
Love
" 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
City
Work
Think
" It's fascinating how life works. "
Henry Louis Gates
Life
Works
How
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
Black
Learn
White
" 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
Together
Up
Black