“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“The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment.”
Henry Louis Gates“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.”
Henry Louis Gates“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“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.”
Henry Louis Gates“Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique.”
Henry Louis Gates“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“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“no human culture is inaccessible to someone who makes the effort to understand, to learn, to inhabit another world.”
Henry Louis Gates Jr.