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" Remember, I have a Ph.D. in English literature. "
Henry Louis Gates
Remember
English
Literature
Related Quotes:
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
Diversity
People
Remember
" 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
" 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
" Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice. "
Henry Louis Gates
Art
Justice
Censorship
" 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
" Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you. "
Henry Louis Gates
Does
Suffering
Necessarily
" 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
" It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people. "
Henry Louis Gates
People
Surprise
Together
" People are afraid, and when people are afraid, when their pie is shrinking, they look for somebody to hate. They look for somebody to blame. And a real leader speaks to anxiety and to fear and allays those fears, assuages anxiety. "
Henry Louis Gates
Leader
People
Look
" We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community. "
Henry Louis Gates
Community
City
Attitude
" 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
" My father and I made genetics history. We were the first African-Americans and the first father and son anywhere to have their genomes sequenced. "
Henry Louis Gates
Father
First
Genetics
" 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
" 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
Story
American
Everyone
" Everything my mother and father did was designed to put me where I am. "
Henry Louis Gates
I Am
Father
Everything
" I think that the implication of King's assassination has not been fully appreciated. "
Henry Louis Gates
Been
Appreciated
I Think
" There are just so many stories that are buried on family trees. "
Henry Louis Gates
Family
Trees
Stories
" It turns out one of my ancestors fought in the Continental Army, so I was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution. "
Henry Louis Gates
American
Army
Revolution
" 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
" Since the day Martin Luther King was killed, the black middle classes have almost quadrupled, but the percentage of black children living on or below the poverty line is almost the same. "
Henry Louis Gates
Poverty
King
Day
" The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred. "
Henry Louis Gates
Business
World
Truth Is
" 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
" When Europeans came upon real ruined cities they refused to believe that they had been built by Africans. Here the past has been distorted and denied. "
Henry Louis Gates
Ruined
Real
Past
" People don't realize what a brilliant politician Lincoln was. Looking back, we want to ascribe a level of providence to his every decision but he was a cunning and calculating politician; from the cultivation of his image as a hayseed from Illinois, to his ability to keep this country together under dire circumstances. "
Henry Louis Gates
Looking Back
People
Decision
" 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? "
Henry Louis Gates
Day
War
Think
" 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. "
Henry Louis Gates
Black
Security
School
" 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