Henry Louis Gates
Henry Louis Gates
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr.is an American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual who currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has discovered what are considered the first books by African-American writers, both of them women, and has published extensively on appreciating African-American literature as part of the Western canon...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth16 September 1950
CountryUnited States of America
There are just so many stories that are buried on family trees.
Instill respect for teachers.
My father was the funniest man I ever met. He made Redd Foxx look like an undertaker.
Ever since I watched 'Roots,' I've dreamed of tracing my African ancestry and helping other people do the same.
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.
No white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager.
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.
I'm a tech geek. Whenever I read about something new, I think to myself, How can I take this and make it black?
I'm looking forward to the time when we all look like Polynesians.
If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It's important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change.
In fact, the class divide in the black community is now seen by some as a permanent aspect of our existence.
Lincoln had a tremendous capacity for personal growth - more than any other American President.
I don't think the riots derailed the civil rights movement.
I'd say imagine that you wake up one morning when you're going through a midlife crisis. You're getting divorced. Your kids won't speak to you. Their faces are covered with acne, and you have to decide why you should get out of bed. That's the career you should pick. The one that keeps you going no matter what, even if your life is falling apart. That's how I feel about my career.