Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism

Derrick Bell

ISBN 10: 0465068146 / ISBN 13: 9780465068142

Published by Basic Books, 1993

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0465068146I4N00

Synopsis:

The classic work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice

In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American struggles for equality are doomed to fail 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. "Freed of the stifling rigidity of relying unthinkingly on the slogan 'we shall overcome,'" he writes, "we are impelled both to live each day more fully and to examine critically the actual effectiveness of traditional civil rights remedies."

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.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The ...
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket