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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
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of integrating African American culture into the broader educational framework of American society.

Henry Louis Gates expresses a desire for the educational system in America to reflect a more diverse cultural landscape. By advocating for 10 percent representation of black culture within the common educational narrative, Gates highlights the need for inclusion and recognition of African American contributions, ensuring that students receive a well-rounded understanding of their nation's heritage.

Themes

EducationCultureDiversityInclusionBlack History

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on cultural diversity in education, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for inclusivity.

More from Henry Louis Gates

There are two things that have always haunted me: the brutality of the European traders and the stories I've heard about Africans selling other Africans into slavery.
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It's not white versus black any more, it's haves versus have-nots. Unless the black middle-classes unite to promote the interests of the black underclass, tension between them is inevitable. What we, the black middle class have to do, is think of a strategy to avert that.
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In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.
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In fact, the class divide in the black community is now seen by some as a permanent aspect of our existence.
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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 GatesRead
The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire, Barack Obama, is president of the United States, is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again.
Henry Louis GatesRead

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