#eric

A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do. ↗

— Jim Lehrer

#american people #any #explain #given #people

All of the guests on 'Faces of America' were deeply moved by what we revealed about their ancestry. We were able to trace the ancestry of Native American writer Louise Erdrich back to 438 A.D. We found that Queen Noor is descended from royalty, and that's before she married King Hussein of Jordan. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#about #america #american #american writer #ancestry

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#america #black #country #ever #founded

Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#because #claim #closely #everyone #him

Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs. For my own people, it was important to imagine him as the Great Emancipator, the Moses who led us out of slavery. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#because #claim #closely #everyone #great

Color categories are on steroids in Latin America. I find that fascinating. It's very difficult for Americans, particularly African-Americans to understand or sympathize with. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#categories #color #difficult #fascinating #find

First we have to recognize that the cause of poverty is both structural and behavioral. And the first thing about the behavior part is that we need a moral revolution within the African American community. Look - no white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#african #african american #american #behavior #behavioral

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

In America one drop of black ancestry makes you black. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#ancestry #black #drop #makes #you

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