#ed

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

#american culture #black #common #culture #dna

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

#dna #family #going #invite #mean

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. I think it's fascinating. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#dna #family #fascinating #going #i

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 revolution #ancestors #army #continental #fought

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

#black #followed #get #here #institution

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

#assassinated #became #being #black #consider

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. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#about #black #capitalist #center #century

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

#chance #day #end #every #every day

My grandfather was coloured, my father was Negro, and I am Black. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#black #coloured #father #grandfather #i

One principle I've been fighting for that doesn't endear me to a lot of people is that black people can be just as complicated and screwed up as white people. Our motives can be just as base and violent. Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#been #black #complicated #does #ennoble