Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

by Derrick Bell, Michelle Alexander (Foreword by)

Overview

The groundbreaking, "eerily prophetic, almost haunting" work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow).

In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example—including the classic story "The Space Traders"—to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American struggles for equality are doomed to fail, he writes, so long as the majority of whites do not see their own well-being threatened by the status quo. Bell calls on African Americans to face up to this unhappy truth and abandon a misplaced faith in inevitable progress. Only then will blacks, and those whites who join with them, be in a position to create viable strategies to alleviate the burdens of racism.

Now with a new foreword by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, this classic book was a pioneering contribution to critical race theory scholarship, and it remains urgent and essential reading on the problem of racism in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541645530
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/30/2018
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	202,548
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)

About the Author

Derrick Bell (1930-2011) was a civil rights attorney, pioneering legal scholar, professor, and political activist. A full-time visiting professor at New York University Law School for over two decades, he was previously the first tenured African American professor on the faculty of Harvard Law School and the first African American dean of the University of Oregon School of Law. He is also the author of And We Are Not Saved and several other books.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

November 6, 1930

Place of Birth:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Education:

A.B., Duquesne University, 1952; L.L.B., University of Pittsburgh Law School, 1957

Website:

http://www.law.nyu.edu/faculty/profiles/fulltime/belld.html

Table of Contents

Foreword Michelle Alexander ix

Preface xxi

Introduction. Divining Our Racial Themes 1

1 Racial Symbols: A Limited Legacy 19

2 The Afrolantica Awakening 39

3 The Racial Preference Licensing Act 59

4 The Last Black Hero 81

5 Divining a Racial Realism Theory 111

6 The Rules of Racial Standing 137

7 A Law Professor's Protest 159

8 Racism's Secret Bonding 183

9 The Space Traders 197

Epilogue. Beyond Despair 243

Notes 251

Index 264

Editorial Reviews

"Eerily prophetic, almost haunting, and yet at the same time oddly reassuring."—Michelle Alexander, from the Foreword

“Bell’s perspective retains its relevance. Even after his death, it has been far easier to disagree with him than to prove him wrong.”—Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker

"Derrick Bell, who is often described as the founder or godfather of critical race theory…. has been an important influence on some of today’s most influential writers on race, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michelle Alexander…. For his supporters and critics alike, Derrick Bell remains a central figure. Nearly three decades after the publication of his most widely read book [Faces at the Bottom of the Well], his stark vision of the racial divide in American society and history has retained its power to provoke debate and activism across the political spectrum."—Wall Street Journal

"Effective...chilling."—New York Times Book Review

"A disturbing but ultimately inspiring book."—San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

Even the unconverted will have to admit that the fictional parables that function as his sermons are powerful in their eloquence.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Stingingly effective....He is pushing a sort of racial existentialism...anchored in what is rather than in hopes of what will be.

Washington Post Book World

A starkly existentialist vision . . . chilling. . . . The stories challenge old assumptions and then linger in the mind.

New York Times Book Review

A testament of faith—faith in the importance of fighting back.

Nation

In nine grim metaphorical sketches, Bell hammers home his controversial theme that white racism is a permanent, indestructible component of our society. $25,000 ad/promo. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bell, in the news because he is on leave from Harvard Law School to protest its never having hired a tenured black woman, has written a provocative and creative book that nicely follows his And We Are Not Saved ( LJ 8/87). His ``interweaving of fact and fiction'' and an ``unorthodox form'' make for stimulating reading and clarify for white readers the obstacles continually faced by black Americans and the miseries they endlessly endure. No other book features, as does this one, a Racial Preference Licensing Act, Racial Data Storms, Afroatlantica Emigration, Space Traders (guess who they are coming to take away?), the Anne Frank Committee, and White Citizens for Black Survival. Bell's thoughts about Minister Louis Farrakhan and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are a contribution to the public dialog on those figures. An especially important and relevant publication for public and academic libraries.-- Katherine Dahl, Western Illinois Univ., Macomb

Library Journal