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Henry Louis Gates Quote

“I give a speech to the black freshmen at Harvard each year, and I say, 'You can like Mozart and ice hockey...' - and then I used to say 'golf,' but Tiger took over golf! - 'and Picasso and still be as black as the ace of spades.'”

— 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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