1. Shaquille O’Neil did not get that name in the Congo if you know what I’m talking about.

    — 

    This past monday at the 92nd Street Y, I watched a great conversation unfold between Henry Louis Gates, Jr and Ilan Stavans.

    Salient facts learned:

    • ‘Only’ 450,000 of 11.2 million Africans stolen over to the New World actually came to the present-day United States.
    • Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is 56% white.
    • The island of Hispaniola is fucked up, and all the racial hemming and hawing in the MLB about the rise of Dominican players (vis-a-vis the diminishment of black players) is entirely wrong in a weird way.
    • Really nobody, white or black, is descended very much from Cherokee princesses.
    • The average African American is 20% white.
    • “Deconstructing” race doesn’t have to be terrible or tedious.
    • Ilan Stavans and Gates are tenacious, wonderful educators.

    (via bmichael)