Gerald Early Professions : Professor Born : April 21, 1952 Browse All Authors Top 5 quotes by Gerald Early I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has ever produced. Gerald Early music baseball thinking It was common practice for me to take my children with me whenever I went shopping, out for a walk in a white neighborhood, or just felt like going about in a white world. The reason was simple enough: if a black man is alone or with other black men, he is a threat to whites. But if he is with children, then he is harmless, adorable. Gerald Early simple men children The Miss America contest isthe most perfectly rendered theater in our culture, for it so perfectly captures what we yearn for: a low-class ritual, a polished restatement of vulgarity, that wants to open the door to high-class respectability by way of plain middle-class anxiety and ambition. Gerald Early ambition class america Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper. Gerald Early style taken winning I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization the Constitution, jazz music, and baseball. Gerald Early Similar Authors Bryan Stevenson professor Bruce Greenwald professor Bruce Ames professor Brian Wansink professor Brian Schmidt professor Brian Martin professor All Authors