Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Literary Freedom as an Essential Human Right
New York Times | Henry Louis Gates Jr.
In a powerful speech delivered at the 2021 Pen America Gala and adapted in a NYT 10/12/21 essay, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues that "whenever we treat an identity as something to be fenced off from those of another identity, we sell short the human imagination."
He reminds us that "The idea that you have to look like the subject to master the subject was a prejudice that our forebears...were forced to challenge," and that "Any teacher, any student, any reader, any writer...must be able to engage freely with subjects of their choice. That is not only the essence of learning; it’s the essence of being human."
In closing, Gates explains that "Social identities can connect us in multiple and overlapping ways; they are not protected but betrayed when we turn them into silos with sentries. The freedom to write can thrive only if we protect the freedom to read — and to learn. And perhaps the first thing to learn, in these storm-battered days, is that we could all do with more humility, and more humanity."
