Voting Station

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

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Educator

The Resume

    (September 16, 1950- )
    Born in Piedmont, West Virginia
    Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard
    Wrote 'The Signifying Monkey' (1988), 'Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars' (1992), 'Colored People: A Memoir' (1994), 'The Future of the Race' (1996), 'The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century' (2000) and 'Finding Oprah's Roots, Finding Your Own' (2007)
    Hosted the PBS series 'America Beyond the Color Line' (2004), 'African American Lives' (2006), 'African American Lives 2' (2008) and 'Looking for Lincoln' (2009)

Why he might be annoying:

    He is nicknamed 'Skip.'
    He is an advocate of affirmative action.
    At the 2 Live Crew obscenity trial, he called the band 'literary geniuses.'
    When police investigated a report of a break-in at his place and asked for an ID, he replied, 'Why, because I'm a black man in America?'
    He continued yelling at the police until he was arrested for disorderly conduct (July 16, 2009).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the first African American to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
    He discovered 'The Bondswoman's Narrative' by Hannah Crafts, the oldest known novel by a black American woman.
    He rejects the notion that only blacks can teach African-American literature, saying 'It's as ridiculous as if someone said I couldn't appreciate Shakespeare because I'm not Anglo-Saxon.'
    He was named one of Time magazine's 25 most influential people (1997).
    The disorderly conduct charges were dropped, with a Cambridge police spokesperson calling the incident 'regrettable and unfortunate.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 37 Votes: 86.49% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 34 Votes: 82.35% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 70 Votes: 45.71% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 94 Votes: 57.45% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 109 Votes: 73.39% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 25 Votes: 52.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 173 Votes: 60.12% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 356 Votes: 57.58% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 331 Votes: 67.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 166 Votes: 80.72% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 196 Votes: 78.06% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 2018 Votes: 73.84% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 4581 Votes: 52.41% Annoying