Questions

1. Why does Henry Louis Gates Jr. object to the “premise that…a ‘race’…[has] to demonstrate its equality through the creation of literature” (par. 1)?

   Question

   Questions: - Why does Henry Louis Gates Jr. object to the “premise that…a ‘race’…[has] to demonstrate its equality through the creation of literature” (par. 1)?
2. How does Gates use Wheatley’s own writings (poems and letters) as evidence in his argument? How convincing is his claim that one text offsets or disputes another?

   Question

   Questions: - How does Gates use Wheatley’s own writings (poems and letters) as evidence in his argument? How convincing is his claim that one text offsets or disputes another?
3. What are the chief criticisms of Wheatley that Gates cites? On what basis does he call them into question?

   Question

   Questions: - What are the chief criticisms of Wheatley that Gates cites? On what basis does he call them into question?
4. Why does Gates link “haunting questions” (par. 17) regarding Wheatley’s identity to similar questions that linger in the twenty-first century? Specifically, what does he mean by this statement: “we have moved from a situation where Phillis Wheatley’s acts of literacy could be used to demonstrate our people’s inherent humanity and their inalienable right to freedom, to a situation where acts of literacy are stigmatized somehow as acts of racial betrayal” (par. 17)?

   Question

   Questions: - Why does Gates link “haunting questions” (par. 17) regarding Wheatley’s identity to similar questions that linger in the twenty-first century? Specifically, what does he mean by this statement: “we have moved from a situation where Phillis Wheatley’s acts of literacy could be used to demonstrate our people’s inherent humanity and their inalienable right to freedom, to a situation where acts of literacy are stigmatized somehow as acts of racial betrayal” (par. 17)?
5. What, finally, does Gates believe is the lasting influence of Wheatley?

   Question

   Questions: - What, finally, does Gates believe is the lasting influence of Wheatley?