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.
Henry Louis GatesRead
Really, the values under which my generation was raised in the '50s were immigrant values even though we weren't immigrants. The greatest thing you could be was a college-educated Negro.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the aspiration for education and achievement within the context of historical immigrant values.
Henry Louis Gates emphasizes the deep-rooted values of hard work and education prevalent in his generation, suggesting that even as African Americans, the highest aspiration was to attain a college education, which symbolizes success and acceptance in a society that often marginalized them. This highlights the importance of education as a means to overcome obstacles and achieve recognition and respect.
Themes
EducationValuesGenerationImmigrantSuccess
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to inspire students about the value of education.
More from Henry Louis Gates
All quotes βIt'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.
Henry Louis GatesRead
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.
Henry Louis GatesRead
In fact, the class divide in the black community is now seen by some as a permanent aspect of our existence.
Henry Louis GatesRead
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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