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Henry Louis Gates Quote

“But you see, our society is still trapped in this binary, black/white logic and that has had some very positive implications for our generation. It's had some very negative ones as well and one of the negative ones is that it creates enormous identity problems for people who have one black ancestor and all white ancestors for example.”

— Henry Louis Gates

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I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate and scared. And when you're desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward - well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism.

— Henry Louis Gates

Wisdom

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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

Love

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Diversity doesn't mean black and white only.

— Henry Louis Gates

Wisdom

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The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

— Henry Louis Gates

Truth

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If Martin Luther King came back, he'd say we need another civil rights movement built on class not race.

— Henry Louis Gates

Wisdom

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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

Wisdom

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