A video tapedhas resurfaced of an address that Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delivered to a Washington, D.C. church in 1996.
Gates, whose brief arrest last week continues to generate headlines and commentary, is seen speaking at an event promoting his book The Future of Race, which he co-authored with radical Marxist professor and self-described “prophet,” Cornel West.
In the video, Gates accuses then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of racism, seeming to imply that Gingrich think blacks live in trees like monkeys.
Gates says:
Newt Gingrich can come in, that Contract for America is serious. You know what those guys have said? ‘Somehow, while we were asleep, all you white women and all you black people got into the middle class. We are not sure how it happened. But the first thing we are going to do is we are going to shake the tree and any of y’all who can’t hold on, you’re all going back. And the second thing, we are going to set up barriers so no more of you all can get in here.’
Gates also said:
We are trying to end what we call the one n-gger syndrome – you know, this place ain’t big enough for more than one of us.
At one point Gates tells his audience:
What we’re trying to do is end ‘your mamma’ and ‘your daddy criticism,’ which is what African-Americans quite frankly have mastered in for 250 years.
While, once again, his precise meaning isn’t entirely clear, the comment faintly echoes Gates’ sarcastic reply to his arresting officer last week, when he was asked to step outside: “Ya, I’ll speak to your momma outside.”
Considering the fact that Gates is an English lit scholar, he sometimes has trouble making himself understood. And his arrogant bluster seems an attempt to disguise his basic incompetence; for example, he once confused Robbie Burns with Shakespeare while testifying under oath as an "expert witness" on literature.
After playing portions of the 1996 video on his program Monday night, Sean Hannity spoke to author and former Bill Clinton adviser Dick Morris, who made a surprising admission, telling Hannity:
Before the election, I came on this show when you kept talking about Rev. Wright, and I kept saying he and Obama were two different people. I think I was wrong.
Morris was refering to Barack Obama’s longtime pastor and spiritual mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, an advocate of far-left “black liberation theology” who has blamed “American racism” for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Comments
Gates is on stage with that OTHER racist Cornell West.
Birds of a feather.
I agree with the comments noted here; there isn't anything here that is fomenting racism. If Shaidle can't understand the speech, perhaps she needs to look at it in its entirety instead of providing clips of isolated sentences or focusing on only parts of quotes (e.g., he refers to white women and blacks in the sentence about "shaking the tree"--it's hard to see this as literal, but a figurative "shaking up" of what's become the status quo). Overall, Gates seems to be chiding not only segregationist whites but also blacks who have made it but are then reluctant to make room for others--he is an equal opportunity critic here, saying everyone has to be willing to recognize the need to help all of us move ahead. Like any good analysis, it should be kept in mind that Gates was speaking to a specific audience who understood some of the references a general audience might not; this is not a polished essay intended for a mass audience and shouldn't be critiqued as though it were.
What I find most sad is that presentations like this one only deepens the perception that political conservatism (far right ideoology) is steeped in white identity and anything that confronts it is met with criticism and offense. Whenever a person of color confronts it with a 'liberal' position the hair flys. Why did the 2008 RNC convention so homogenous? Why was Pat Buchanon putting both feet in his mouth about 'white contributions' to this nation.
Why is right wind politics so uncomfortable for most people of color?
I think this article is a prime example of journalism with a lack of research. The writer shamelessly lacks the knowledge required to effectively present this information. The languaging Gates chose to use in his speech was effective for the demographic he was trying to reach. It was not racist in the context of time and audience he was using it. However, the average reader of this article is not clued in to this vernacular. The author in turn preys on the majority of readers' lack of knowledge by coupling misapplied quotes with scary adjectives and paraphrasings. There is also a heavy help of OPINION here.
Miss Shaidle, your article only served to exposed that you are clueless when it comes to this topic.
Ms. Shaidle, I'm forced to agree with most of the other comments here. Gates says nothing here that could be construed as racist. He pridefully notes his own achievements as an academic--preening is hardly racism--and then attributes them, quite carefully, not SOLELY to affirmative action policies, but to the chance those policies gave a smart black boy to compete on equal ground with white boys and girls. You may not agree with his characterization of Gingrich's policies, but the rhetorical flight through which he expresses his disdain for those policies is very much in the American grain. Not the Canadian grain, perhaps?
I suspect you're not aware that Gates has been put on the defensive twice in the past year by academic leftists, black and white, for being a "centrist," and thus a sort of sellout. Houston A. Baker attacked him for this in BETRAYAL, a book about black intellectuals who have abandoned the goals of the Civil Rights movement.
Gates is no radical.
So, I dutifully watched the whole video and... no racism. Kathy, you're going to have to do a bit of interpreting for all of us stupid people who don't know what on earth you're talking about.
I don't understand why the article ended with a quotation about Wright and Obama being the same. Isn't the article about Gates, not Obama? Does the author of the article imply that what one black man says shows what how all other black people are? That all black men are the same? Isn't this the definition of prejudice, or even racism?
I do not see anything here that foments racism. I agree with lizhud's comments. Shaidle & BSZone are clearly lacking understanding and knowledge concerning this topic.
Robert Moon is spamming The Activity Pit again: twi.cc/lAlq
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