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

by Derrick Bell, Michelle Alexander Narrated by Brad Raymond

Overview

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."

Editorial Reviews

Los Angeles Times Book Review

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

Washington Post Book World

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

New York Times Book Review

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

Nation

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

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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.)

Library Journal

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

From the Publisher

"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

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170058501
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	10/30/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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