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

by Derrick A. Bell, Michelle Alexander (Contributor), Brad Raymond (Narrator)

Imagine America on the first day of the 21st century. At the break of dawn, a thousand space ships descend from the sky, landing on the shores of the East Coast, bearing treasures of gold, safe nuclear power and detoxifying agents that could pay all debts and save the earth's environment. In exchange for these goods, guaranteed to rescue America from the excesses of its past, the Space Traders want just one thing -- to take all African Americans back to their home star.

What would our leaders do? White Americans were once capable of rationalizing Black slavery; would they be capable of justifying the trade of all African Americans to space, to improve their own lot on earth?

The situation is a chilling fantasy. But for Derrick Bell, the prominent civil rights activist and former Harvard Law School Professor, the danger is very real. In Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism, Bell uses allegory and historical example to argue that racism has always been an integral, permanent and indestructible component of American society.

Genres: Race, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Social Justice, African American, Sociology

Audible Audio

First published March 1, 1992

About the author

Derrick Albert Bell Jr. was the first tenured African-American professor of law at Harvard Law School and is largely credited as one of the originators of critical race theory (CRT). He was a visiting professor at New York University School of Law from 1991 until his death. He was also a dean of the University of Oregon School of Law. [wikipedia]

Reviews

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fascinating and allegorical musings on America's deep racial problems. I had the pleasure of taking Derrick Bell's class in law school, but I hadn't read this book. Bell is really pessimistic about American racial progress. I really wish he were around today to update this book. I imagine he would say "I told you so" (that is, if he were a petty person).

[Robert Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I’ll admit it. I wanted to hate this book. Understanding its general themes, depressing conclusions, and fatalistic prescriptions for action, I found myself formulating counterarguments to what I had assumed to be Bell’s ideas before I had even cracked the cover. I knew this was dumb as I was doing it, but screw it, I did it anyway. While I finished the book disagreeing with many of Bell’s conclusions and thoroughly rejecting the wisdom of his proposed response, I nonetheless found myself admiring his insightful and utterly correct view of America’s racial history, his willingness challenge beloved American origin myths and his bold (some would say, courageous) critique of the philosophical framework of American society that, in Bell’s view, essentially guarantees the perpetuation of racial injustice.

Using fables, allegories and vignettes, many mediated by an inscrutable “lawyer-prophet” muse, Geneva Crenshaw, who magically appears periodically to goad Bell towards the uncomfortable conclusions his facts necessarily compel, Bell builds his case that American claims to exceptionalism are ultimately rooted in structures of racial oppression, that the philosophical underpinnings of the law as it is currently understood in America is inherently unresponsive to the needs of the people who most require its protections, that conventional civil rights thinking and its forms of activism are, at best, useless and at worst, counterproductive, that racism and its multitude of hideous consequences are a permanent fixture of American society and that, despite all of this, racism should be resisted, not in the hope of changing anything, but rather, as noble acts of “ultimate defiance”.

What I admired about Bell was his unflinching, nostalgia-free view of American history, his clear-minded acknowledgement of racism’s historical intransigence and his recognition that historical approaches to civil rights keep bringing us back to the same forms of oppression that we start with. Despite what Mrs. Cole may have taught you in the seventh grade, American history is less the story of great men, noble principles and courageous action than it is the story of rich white men convincing poor white men to accept less than they deserve in exchange for the certain promise that black people would never get anything at all…..a group who rich whites were free to exploit and poor whites were free to despise, each without the slightest fear of social sanction or moral consequence. Unlovely though this view may be, it has the ugly virtue of being true and serves as the starting point for Bell’s analysis. In that Americans fail to recognize our past, we are doomed to perpetually repeat it. The essence of Bell's insights in this area is a rejection of the beloved notion that the moral arc of the universe is long, but bends towards justice - instead, suggests Bell, it merely bends back to its starting point and repeats the same cycle over again. Civil rights “highpoints” such the freeing of the slaves are eroded by Redemption and the adoption of Jim Crow or 60’s era Civil rights legislation that "killed" Jim Crow are eroded by reluctant adoption, colorblind jurisprudence, and post-racial coded assaults on minorities inherent in wars on drugs, toughness on crime and children who, oh no, shall not be left behind. In light of my resistance to Bell’s book, it would be wonderful if I could challenge him on any of his points in these areas. Sadly, I cannot. He’s right. In being right, the virtue of his book lies in the fact that he recognizes these truths for what they are, and sets out to draw conclusions and identify new conceptual trailheads that are anchored in facts and not myth.

For as bold and insightful as Bell’s analysis is, its conclusions and prescriptions for action are fatally flawed by the fact that he stops short of identifying the heart of phenomenon he so clearly identifies. That the dominant white society into which blacks were kidnapped and compelled to labor became racist in its orientation is indisputable; yet in failing to seriously explore why that should be Bell gives up to despair and topples his king too soon. He doesn’t so much explain why whites act the way they do as he simply takes white depravity for granted and moves on from there. Of course, if it is indeed true that whites are depraved – themselves powerless over some presumed innate inclination to racial oppression - the fact that whites outnumber blacks by almost five to one, and are collectively possessed of political power and influence that dwarfs even their numerical majority, then Bell is right and blacks are simply and permanently screwed. Yet before seriously expecting anyone to accept the point, it is incumbent upon Bell to explore this depravity, identify its source and make the case that it is “inherent” and so, irreversible. In that he has failed to do this – failed to even attempt it – his conclusions and the prescriptions for action they inspire amount to little more than pouting. Contemporary race theory holds, rightly, I believe, that race is nothing more than a social construct and that fundamentally there are no inherent differences between people of different races other than those society imputes upon them. If this is, indeed, true, then there is no more reason to believe that whites are any more (or any less) “depraved” than blacks. This suggests that there is something more going on in the forms and manifestations of American racism than can be explained by a theory that takes white difference for granted. In that Bell stops short of considering these, the pessimistic conclusions he reaches are based on incomplete data and so, are necessarily and fatally flawed.

Although I don’t want to make too much of this, the form of Bell’s book is inadequate to the quality of his ideas. Being one part “Plato’s dialogues” and one part “Pilgrim’s Progress”, the book is to Critical Race Theory what “The Fountainhead” is to Objectivism. The form, while undeniably fascinating, nonetheless leads to the same intellectual fuzziness that burdens Objectivist theory. It is rich with spurious syllogisms, untestable theses and appeals to self-serving cynicism that are as superficially attractive as they are, ultimately flawed.

Yet for all of these deficits, Bell’s work is both remarkable and indispensable, not necessarily for the conclusions it reaches, but for the unflinching and unsentimental way it attempts to confront truths and draw logical conclusions from them. If Bell is wrong, it is not because his facts are erroneous, but merely, because they are incomplete.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in America’s contemporary racial dynamic. Before you begin this book, however, I would encourage any reader to first invest the time necessary to read about and understand America’s racial history. To one who has been raised on the comforting pap of American foundational myths, Bell’s assertions regarding America’s racial history will undoubtedly be either profoundly shocking or perversely gratifying. He has much to say that is challenging and controversial, yet to truly appreciate his work – both its promise and its flaws - it is helpful if you are not burdened with an incomplete view of American history and so, be compelled to waste time either reactively rejecting or uncritically agreeing with the uncomfortable yet accurate historical truths that are the springboard for his analysis.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read chapter nine for a grad class. In this chapter "Space Traders" come to America and offer our Nation much needed resources and relief from debt and ask for all Black citizens in return...needless to say, I was not shocked by American's response to this offer.

Here are my thoughts on the chapter:
Sadly, the ending of this chapter did not shock or surprise me. It was apparent from the first meeting with the President and the professor that the Nation would accept the offer of the Space Traders. It was briefly mentioned in the chapter but I could not help but wonder where bi-racial citizens would stand in an event such as this. Would the government refer back to the one-drop rule of the Jim Crow laws? Or would the tone of skin come into play? Would interracial families remain intact or would they be separated by color? I also thought of the wealthy white men who held a meeting to discuss the major changes that would occur if African Americans were removed from the economy. Property values would change, poorer Whites would be more aware of their poverty, 12% of the market/jobs would be lost, not to mention that many Whites would have to take over the hard labor and domestic service jobs of the African Americans. The professor’s wife brought another sad thought from the chapter to light, while the Space Traders were bound to be evil; African Americans would not be better off remaining in a racist America. It is disheartening.

I wonder what the outcry would be if this chapter was made into a movie. It would certainly bring race relations and civil rights issues back to the forefront of our minds and demand that we readdress racist policies in hopes of achieving social justice.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

a bright blow to the brain. this is not great writing necessarily - it is insightful and provocative thinking. this book changed my imagination and has stayed with me as few others have - that's as good as it gets for me.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me: though Bell is one of the core voices in a canon I've spent much of college reading and discussing, I had not yet encountered his major (and provocative) conclusion. (I would summarize this conclusion--the book's thesis--as: racism is a permanent feature of the United States, unfixable regardless of the efforts of civil rights lawyers and activists; in order to 1) make meaningful progress toward racial justice and 2) find meaning even in an unwinnable struggle, "we" must first understand and accept the permanence of racism.) I wish I'd read this book sooner, because, as Michelle Alexander outlines in her foreword, this is an idea that has deeply influenced a generation of civil rights lawyers and scholars like Alexander, and is baked into the theses of books like Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. I also wish I'd read it in school so that I could come to understand its implications better through discussion. Still, though the authors of some of my favorite/most influential books have been grappling with Bell's contentions for decades, Faces at the Bottom of the Well surprised and challenged me. The permanence of racism is not a comforting theory, and I found myself trying to mentally argue with Bell, though he has prepared for this reaction and makes his case powerfully.

Bear with me as I, as usual, bring Rebecca Solnit into this. I would not be surprised to learn that Solnit's Hope in the Dark was, like The New Jim Crow, written in conversation with Bell; the two authors seem to come to the same sort of conclusion, in arguing that there is hope and meaning and even salvation in the fact that the future is unknown. More specifically, both authors eschew the variety of "hope" that is actually a national mythology of "automatic progress, universal freedom, and the American dream" (Bell 245). Bell takes this view, I think, a step further, by suggesting that there is hope not only in the unknown, but in the probability of failure by traditional standards. In his words: "it is a question of both, and. Both the recognition of the futility of action--where action is more civil rights strategies destined to fail--and the unalterable conviction that something must be done, that action must be taken" (248).

Some other powerful/thought-provoking points:
- In his introduction, Bell quotes Professor Jennifer Hochschild's theory that "liberal democracy and racism in the United States are historically, even inherently, reinforcing; American society as we know it exists only because of its foundation in racially based slavery, and thrives only because racial discrimination continues. The apparent anomaly is an actual symbiosis" (12).
- "We must learn to examine every racial policy, including those that seem most hostile to blacks, and determine whether there is unintended potential African Americans can exploit" (75).
- "One must try to be...cognizant of the fact that slavery, for example, tried to dehumanize blacks, and failed, and didn't try to dehumanize whites, but succeeded" (117).
- In building a national narrative that "incorporates the experience" of the marginalized, we "must find inspiration not in the sacrosanct, but utterly defunct, glory of ideals that for centuries have proven both unattainable and poisonous. Rather, they must find it in the lives of our 'oppressed people who defied social death as slaves and freedmen, insisting on their humanity despite a social consensus that they were "a brutish sort of people"'" (245).

I found the allegory form a little clunky at times, but Bell is an engaging writer with fascinating and unsettling ideas. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

[Terri Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for a graduate seminar. It is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. Derrick Bell was fired from Harvard University for refusing to work for 2 years because he wanted fr Harvard to hire more blacks. This book is a politically correct, whiny, crybaby book, where instead of just presenting his ideas, he pretends he is talking to a black woman named Geneva, having an encounter with a black loving white woman in the woods, having bizarre dreams, etc none of which he admits is just a made-up story about made-up events and conversations. This is one of the most racist books full of white hatred I have read. Did you know, for example, according to Mr. Bell, when black men abuse their lovers, baby mamas, or girlfriends, it is really the fault of all white Americans because the black abusers are frustrated by racism? Odd, because white men, Asian-American men,and Latino men in America also abuse wives and girlfriends. In fact, there is domestic violence in ALL of the countries of the world and in all races and ethnic groups. How is that caused by white American men and how does that cause white American men to be wife beaters too? Nonsense.

He sets up totally absurd situations and then has these conversations that sound like long textbooks or academic papers. No one talks like this privately! He had a pretend conversation with a black cabbie where the cabbie sounded like he was reading out loud from a text. He had a goofy made-up event where he was out with a computer on a mountain in Oregon (!!) and met a white woman with a handgun who told them of her group of whites who expected a race war and to have to hide blacks and a long chapter-long discussion that sounded like it came out of a textbook. It ended with her beating a huge white supremicist who came up and tried to round them up with a rifle. Yeah, like that would happen. He had regular made up conversations with a made-up woman-Geneva- where he used those conversations to get his point out in textbook chapter conversations. Especially weird were the four chapters where he pretended that (1) The US passed a law where businesses could exclude black customers if they got a license to do so and then paid 3% of their income from white customers into a fund to send blacks to college, (2) The white president of Harvard was blown up and incinerated along with all of the 197 staff and faculty at Harvard who were meeting to make plans to be sure 10% of all professors and staff had black skin, (3) a goofy chapter about an island emerging from under the sea where no whites or Asians or Hispanics could breathe but only black Americans could breathe freely and a situation where black Americans decided to move there and make it the promised land-Afrolantia- only to have the island submerge back into the sea when they arrived, and (4)the chapter where space aliens showed up (no, I am not kidding), and said they would give the USA all the gold it need to stop being in debt, the technology to cure all illnesses and clean up the planet plus have free safe energy forever, but only if they would let them have all the black Americans. He goes on using a black conservative to tell this dumb story.

Bell's theme is this- blacks can't do anything because all whites as a whole won't let them. His message to blacks is that they are perpetual victims who need a lifelong pity party. Those blacks who are successful are Uncle Toms.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very good. It is a series of science fictional short stories that illustrate Bell's thesis that Black people are not and will never be considered a part of America by white people.
The book benefits from his vast knowledge of constitutional as well as American history. Multiple stories talk about possible ways that White people are preparing to sacrifice Black folks for their collective advancement all culminating in a story that puts two choices before the nation. The choice is to have all our economic and environmental problems go away by giving all American Black people over to a group of aliens. While my short summary of it may sound ridiculous, the book itself does an excellent job of discussing how this debate could actually occur in American society.
While Bell's ultimate conclusion is frightening, it doesn't have to be necessary. That said, it does give people who care about social and economic justice something to think about when framing debates around racial issues. Results should be more important than approach, and we may sometimes need to take stances that seem contradictory to our ultimate mission when the endgame is survival.

[Desera Favors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book is fiction it is very essential to the movement. I was introduced to this book my sophomore year in college where I was training to be a student anti-racist organizer. The book assists to prepare its reader for events that have and will continue to take place within the anti-racist Black Nationalist movement. Although the stories are some what fantasy like it does a good job analyzing the struggles in organizing. This book is formatted like a series; although none of the stories are connected but none the less give a well rounded look into the world of an organizer. I suggest this book for active community organizers; it is an easy read with an edge. Once you pick this joint up you won't put it down until you reach the last page. I also suggest this book for great book discussion sessions. Enjoy!

[Susan B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derrick Bell is sometimes said to be the founder of Critical Race Theory. Instead of using elitist legal jargon, he uses compelling stories to expose the problems caused by the seemingly permanent racism underlying U.S. constitutional law and politics. His stories are often quite tragic, but he always provides at least a tinge of hope in the meaning that can come through suffering as well as in community bonding. He has many books of this type, but this, the second in the series, is my favorite.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is SO GOOD. Many of the stories take on a personable, didactic, conversational feel in the vein of Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael”. Within that framework, the author drops some SERIOUS truth bombs. I swear I highlighted every other page. Not only that, but the stories themselves are extremely thought provoking. As soon as I finished the book (which I read in ebook format from the library), I ordered a copy because I want to read it again and highlight everything so I can keep processing. Seriously one of my favorite books I have ever read. I will be recommending this to everyone I know.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short stories in 'Faces at the Bottom of the Well' serve as allegories conveying Derrick Bells thesis that racism is a permanent part of American society. The fictional tales, buttressed by real examples of judicial opinions, prominent figures and historical events, stretch the limits of the reader's imagination. Many of the tales may seem unlikely or inconceivable, but the compelling idea is that they are but a step away from that which actually happens.

I greatly enjoy digesting Bell's arguments though it takes a dialogue for me to fully understand what is at hand. The text itself is often tricky to get through and not entirely illuminating in and of itself. However, talking with someone who is much better versed than I on critical race theory about the stories has helped to bring them into context and add meaning.

It is undeniable that a recognition of racial disparities is imperative for anyone interested in serving the ideals of equality, democracy or justice. In turn, I welcome and appreciate challenges such as Bell's to the all-too-common sociological frameworks.

[Lance Eaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bell uses allegoric storytelling to explore the legal, cultural, and philosophical racial underpinnings of American white culture and its impact on black identity and methods of surviving in this hostile racialize structure. His approach in many ways reminds me of the philosophical dialogues that we see in the works of Plato and the like. They are sometimes clear and simple settings and other times fantastical, but with each, the story's context and the fictional protagonist (Bell, himself) engages in a tete-a-tete with other characters including one recurring character, Geneva Crenshaw. Through these discussions and thought experiments, Bell draws upon the legal and cultural history as well as contemporary thinkers such as Kimberley Crenshaw and bell hooks to which help him explain a nuanced understanding of race, racial power structures, freedom, and oppression in the US. Though published in the 1990s, his writing still holds water today in his sophisticated takedowns of how racism is leveled in the US. His final and most well-known story, The Space Traders is a haunting tale to consider in a post-Trump era. The story's premise is that aliens come to the US and offer unforetold riches to the American government if they will hand over all of their African Americans. To no surprise, it is a matter of when, not if, they will be handed over. In some ways, Bell feels like a prophet of the 2016 election, arguing that when given a clear choice, white America will choose the racist and xenophobic route, particularly if promised riches and security. I can't believe I waited this long to read Bell's work as it has been a repeated invocation in dozens of books and I can certainly understand now having finished it. What I like particularly about it is that Bell's story format makes it more accessible and comprehensible than some of the more dense texts that I've read elsewhere. He uses story to capture the essence of the issues and portray them in ways the readers connect will find expansively applicable.

[Betsy Cornwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derrick Bell is one of the ground-breaking lawyers who developed critical race theory. His long career as a civil rights pioneer alone makes him a must-read author. Apparently he's given to fits of radical creativity, as expressed in this book. Readers here are presented with a series of mostly bizarre scenarios: a paradise-like island suddenly emerges from the sea with abundant resources and an atmosphere that only American black people can breathe; a new law that provides licenses to discriminate based on race with the fees and fines supporting college scholarships for black students, etc.
It took me awhile to get into this book. Like a lawyer, Bell seems to think that he can change minds with his endless arguing. It's like sitting through one of those endless dinner-table discussions where everyone feels a need to explain their own point of view and nobody is listening. The problem with those annoying discussions is that I can never stay out of them.
So Bell's stories have sucked me in. I share the scenarios whenever I have an opportunity for a long chat with pretty much anyone. They've gotten me thinking about our country's history and my place in it. Most especially, Bell has sparked me to think about justice. Maybe he's right about it's being unattainable. Somehow I feel more inspired to struggle for it in whatever way I can.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nine teaching parables. Several are of great and terrible power. I had read the most great and powerful of these, Space Traders, somewhere along the road. I had not realized, then, it is explicitly framed by the very first parable that got me in the gut, Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Both explore the moral consequence of knowing your community’s welfare is bought by the coin of someone else’s misery. Neither offer much in the way of hope or heroic action for us all to look to/get cathartic release by them doing it for us.

In a way, more satisfying than Omelas because there are people trying to get the miserable little girl out of the dark closet, though of course he strips away the fig leaf that Omelas is somewhere else, not our shining city on hill. (Though Bell is not the prose stylist of Le Guin).

Well worth the time.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! Incredible!! Just when I thought theres nothing new under the sun when it comes to the ol' racism narrative, I'm so grateful to have 'stumbled' upon this book! As abhorrent as the idea is, I find it encouraging to consider that racism is a permament feature of our society, as the author argues, because it implies a different and maybe a more effective way to struggle against it. Nothing less than inspiring...

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the analysis of racism in this book, as well as the vignettes. The last chapter, called The Space Traders, is one of the most moving scenarios I've ever read in terms of how America would deal with African-Americans if they were presented with the option of getting rid of blacks without obvious consequence. Great read, in my opinion.

[Reena · Rating 4 out of 5]

By my beloved late Law Professor Bell. I didn't read this book at the time I was his student but it feels as important as ever in the age of Trump. A persuasive critique of the traditional civil rights movement strategies, I will always consider his unique perspective and stances - and commitment to them, inspiring. I miss you DB.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Bell was a brilliant man. This book was outstanding!

[Maryellen Pawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot more dialogue based than I expected, but still a good, important, thought provoking read!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Space Traders was actually mind-blowing. So on the nose. So good. Humorous in a self-aware, ironic, and deadpan way. In presenting the idea of a trade of the African American population for resources, Bell masterfully touches on themes of black conservatism and ideologies behind civil rights efforts, politicians, the motives of big business, the use of religion to drive political messages, and the dynamics between minorities in America. While our country portrays ourselves as free and equal, this book presents a situation that is not far from reality- where these ideals are distorted or upheld for the convenience of the few.

"The leaders of this vast armada could speak English. Moreover, they spoke in the familiar comforting tones of former President Reagan, having dubbed his recorded voice into a computerized language-translation system."

"Four years before, during his first election campaign, the President had made some vague promises of diversity when speaking to minority gatherings. But after the election, he thought, What the hell!"

"Though seldom acknowledging the fact, most business leaders understood that blacks were crucial in stabilizing the economy with its ever-increasing disparity between the incomes of rich and poor."

"'But, Gleason,' his wife asked, 'would our lives have really been better had we fooled the country into voting against the Trade? If the Space Traders were to depart, carrying away with them what they and everyone else says can solve our major domestic problems, wouldn't people increasingly blame us blacks for increases in debt, pollution, and fuel shortages? We might have saved ourselves-but only to face here a fate as dire as any we face in space."

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A classic book by one of the originators of the Critical Race Theory movement. 

A few weeks ago, I presented an intro to Critical Race Theory to my Be the Bridge group. The presentation is available here. While I created it with the intention of it having many links to articles and podcasts for further investigation, it was designed to be in addition to my audible presentation. It is of only mixed value without any audio. One of the group's co-leaders suggested that I read Faces at the Bottom of the Well because I had not read any longer works by Derrick Bell, only a couple of articles.

I must say that this is unlike any other book on Critical Race Theory I have read. Faces at the Bottom of the Well is a mix of fictional dialogue, like Plato's dialogues, and parable-like short stories. The short stories ran from simple discussion or working out of policy ideas to the final short story Space Traders, a sci-fi exploration of how much the country values its Black citizens (and why).

One of the common critiques of Critical Race Theory is that it is oriented toward viewing humanity as depraved. I always find this an odd critique from Christians. Traditional reformed perspectives of Christianity view all people as depraved. But the misunderstanding, I think, comes at how the depravity works. In CRT, the main point is that racism is not centered around individual animus against people of a different racial group, but systems that lock the disparity in. Those systems and how racial hierarchy is locked into those give Faces at the Bottom of the Well the subtitle, The Permanence of Racism.

My seminary systematic theology professor was a Black Liberation theologian, and I am eternally grateful for that early introduction to theology. One of the early books we read was Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society. (It is cheap on kindle because it is in the public domain, and I keep meaning to re-read it because my original reading was more than 25 years ago.) Niebuhr's book's main point is that while people are sinful, people are more likely to sin as members of groups than solely as individuals. Niebuhr wrote this before becoming a professor at Union Seminary and from his experience as an urban pastor in Detroit in the early years of the Great Depression.

Niebuhr was critiquing progressive liberal theological systems that thought we could bring about utopian or increasingly better societies through social gospel types of advocacy and policy change. There is a whole chapter on Niebuhr in James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree. As much as Niebuhr helps critique aspects of liberalism and the push toward ever-increasing progressivism, his own racial blindspots are exactly the type of issues that CRT arose to address.

There can be a nihilism to traditional CRT, but there is also an accuracy that opponents to CRT do not seem to want to address directly. The current move to make CRT incompatible with Christianity simply by declaring it so, without actually addressing the problems it raises, is accurately predicted by Derrick Bell and others. I mostly want to say to those who find CRT the most dangerous threat to Christianity is what are you going to do about racism to prove CRT's nihilism wrong?

I think that Bradly Mason is right to explain CRT by addressing the historical reasons for its development. He has a six-part series at the Front Porch blog, but I do not believe he is done. His long, but helpful look at how the pushback against Civil Rights Era reforms starting in the 1960s but increasing in the 1980s, shows that even mild legal reforms to voting rights, housing, and other economic reforms, and within the church, the Promise Keepers 'find a black friend' strategies were not enough to overcome the culture of racial hierarchy, but were too much not to have a backlash against.

I have finished but not yet reviewed Daniel Hill's White Lies. It is about the church's importance, particularly White Christians, in naming white supremacy, or white superiority or racial hierarchy as the sin, not just opposing individualized racial animus that we can only see in others. I am not a whole-hearted proponent of CRT because I do not believe that its orientation is about solutions but about identifying the problem. But CRT does help identify the problem of systemic racism and its intractability. And as Christians, we need to be reminded that, at root, CRT identifies racism as a type of cosmic reality and a sin, albeit in secular terms and modes.

Faces at the Bottom of the Well is engaging. Its method of stories and dialogue remove the academic and legal language that other authors use. Bell is engaging the heart and imagination, not just the intellect, which is part of the need. The problem with many is that racism is abstract; there is no relational skin in the game. Even without relational skin in the game, books like this can help create empathy and imaginative understanding to help people see differently.

[Jaz Boon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derrick Bell is equal parts genius and wild. His use of allegory and historical data points is something new to me. The way in which he demonstrates the permanence of racism is very well thought out and sobering. While the idea of racism’s permanence may seem depressing, he wraps by expressing hope in the struggle and in meaning. It’s not a book, IMO, that should cause us to despair; rather, we should be inspired by the oppressed that have come before us. They found meaning and life and joy in difficult circumstances and in resistance.

[Rebecca Shrader · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I was unsure of this book. Every chapter is an allegory or imaginative story, but it’s by an academic (the father of CRT)-so I thought it might turn into something that would fly over my head.

Instead, it gave me a glimpse into the premise (racism is a permanent fixture of America and always has been) and gave me double entendres to chew on for a long while. The Last Black Hero, Afroatlantica and The Space Traders were some of the best chapters.

We discussed this book in my book club and it deepened and enriched my understanding.

[Dunstan McNutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That, Geneva, is the real Black History, all too easily lost in political debates over curricular needs. It is a story less of success than of survival through an unremitting struggle that leaves no room for giving up. We are all part of that history, and it is still unfolding” (249). This pretty well captures what I love and what I find frustrating about this book: Bell manages to write beautifully (sometimes hilariously, sometimes heartbreakingly) of the struggle, but to do so doesn’t require the negation of success.

[Reid tries to read · Rating 3 out of 5]

”Black people will never gain full equality in this country. Even those herculean efforts we hail as successful will produce no more than temporary "peaks of progress," short-lived victories that slide into irrelevance as racial patterns adapt in ways that maintain white dominance. This is a hard-to- accept fact that all history verifies. We must acknowledge it, not as a sign of submission, but as an act of ultimate defiance.”

All the material gains made by African Americans in the 1960s and 70s had been reversed by the 1990s. Data compiled shows that the unemployment rate for black Americans was 2.5x that of white Americans, black per-capita income was less than ⅔ that of white per-capita income, and black people were 3 times more likely to be below the poverty level than white people. It is in this the context in which Derrick Bell, the first black tenured law professor in Harvard’s history, wrote Faces at The Bottom of The Well. Through a series of short narratives and parables, Bell elaborates his view that racism will always be an inextricable aspect of American life. To him, white people will only ever make concessions to black people as long as it is not inconvenient for white people to do so. Even then, white people will often use discriminatory practices against black people as a safety value to release their own frustrations in spite of the fact that antiracist practices could bring benefits to both the white and black people. As the income gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% widens (when Bell was writing the top 2 million earners made as much as the next 100 million earners; today this has only gotten worse), white people still choose to elect conservative politicians who give them no real material benefits. Why? Because these politicians often rely on the historically viable technique of getting whites to identify on the basis of their skin color over material interests. The dog whistles might change but the message stays the same; in the infamous words of Nixon strategist Lee Atwater: “(you start in) 1954 by saying 'n*gger, n*gger, n*gger.' By 1968 you can't say 'n*gger,' that hurts you, backfires, so you say stuff like ‘forced bussing, states rights’ and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract… and the byproduct often is Blacks get hurt worse than whites.”. As Bell puts it: “whites will accept large disparities in economic opportunity in respect to other whites as long as they have a priority over blacks and other people of color for access to the few opportunities available” (p. 9). Although this book lacks a thorough analysis of the material causes of racism in America, I think it is both thought provoking and enlightening enough to be beneficial for anyone to read.

Racial Symbols: A Limited Legacy
The first short story in Faces at The Bottom of The Well has Bell conversing with a working class Langston Hughes character inserted into the real world named Jesse B. Semple. Semple skewers many of Bells’ beliefs (which really are extensions of prominent beliefs within the liberal civil rights community). When Bell tries to argue about the symbolic significance of MLK having a national holiday in his honor, Semple immediately calls the holiday out for what it really is: “A holiday for Dr. King is just another instance—like integration—that black folks work for and white folks grant when they realize—long before we do that it is mostly a symbol that won't cost them much and will keep us blacks pacified.”(p. 38). Although Bell tries to argue that it’s better to be an optimist and look at the bright spots like these symbols, Semple shuts him down by saying that the only thing black Americans really have are symbols in lue of real material and political gains. The American state and its operatives assassinate black leaders like MLK, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and Medgar Evers, then neuters their views and mythologize them into more palatable versions of their real selves. In essence, as Lenin famously wrote in the opening pages of State and Revolution , “During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons… while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it” (State and Revolution, p. 8). In a moment that supports the book’s overall thesis that gains for black Americans are usually only temporary and limited, Semple angrily elaborates that “What you have is a holiday for one black man, great as he was, while the country does nothing about the fact that there are more black people out of work now than at any time since slavery…Tell me how a holiday for Dr. King helps the poor, the ignorant, the out-of-work, and hungry blacks all over this racist land?" (p. 41). Bell even has the prescience to predict the outcome of the Obama presidency decades before it would happen; he analyzes that black leaders, whether they are elected to be a mayor or the president of the entire country, must use their limited resources first to placate whites and pacify blacks, therefore having little political capital or resources left over to actually help their fellow black Americans. Semple’s last admonishment of Bell’s beliefs might be his most poignant; he tells Bell that successful black men and the black bourgeoisie function as a way to allow white people to conclude that “discrimination is over, and that if the rest of us got up off our dead asses, dropped the welfare tit, stopped having illegitimate babies, and found jobs, we would all be just like you.” (p. 46).

The Afrolantica Awakening
This story is about a landmass which emerges from the ocean that proves to only be hospitable to black Americans. Bell uses this story to discuss and analyze historical arguments for and against black people migrating out of America. Some people believed African Americans had suffered biblically under the hands of white America, and therefore would see an improvement by leaving for this new continent of Afrolantica. Others argued that leaving would mean surrendering the civil rights gains black Americans had fought, bled, and died for over the centuries. By pointing to historic advocates of emigration like Marcus Garvey, the pro-emigration crowd argued that “earlier advocates of emigration had themselves been driven to take their stand by their experience of slavery or segregation and by their perception that the discrimination, exclusion, and hostility from whites was never going to end. Garvey himself had told blacks that racial prejudice was so much a part of the white civilization that it was futile to appeal to any sense of justice” (p. 58). They also pointed to Lincoln, who had once said “Your race suffer greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason why we should be separated." (p. 60). Black people who were against leaving for Afrolantica pointed out that the original proponents of black emigration were white people who, in the 1830s, helped deport around 1,400 black Americans to Liberia. To leave would be to give up the struggle for equality and desecrate the graves of those who had given it all to push the struggle to the heights it had obtained. They pointed to Frederick Douglas who had adamantly proclaimed that black people were always part of America and always would be. They were here to stay whether white or black Americans liked it or not. The question to him was not should they leave, but how should they best organize within their American confines. Yet within America many blacks had historically migrated and spread throughout the nation in an attempt to escape white domination, discrimination, and lynchings. Any attempts at self-determination had been met across the country with violence, often backed by the state itself.

Afrolantica itself became a powerful goal towards which black Americans organized around and were invigorated by, while the American state worried that the island would become a type of third-world Cuba, with its resources outside of American imperial control and its existence a symbol of third-world resistance to Western imperialism. Eventually the island sank back into the sea, but its very existence had spurred a new national self-consciousness amongst black Americans. Those that had wanted to leave had organized, pooled their resources, and been given a symbol of hope and a goal with which they could strive towards. Without the island, black Americans now saw that, through their collective strength, they could be liberated in their minds at the very least “The spirit of cooperation that had engaged a few hundred thousand blacks spread to others, as they recalled the tenacity for humane life which had enabled generations of blacks to survive all efforts to dehumanize or obliterate them. Infectious, their renewed tenacity reinforced their sense of possessing themselves. Blacks held fast, like a talisman, the quiet conviction that Afrolantica had not been mere mirage—that somewhere in the word America, somewhere irrevocable and profound, there is as well the word Afrolantica.” (p. 66)

The Racial Preference Licensing Act
This story is pretty meta and really fucking fantastic. It starts with Bell reading a story written by one of his own recurring fictional characters. The story is essentially about the passing of a law that makes racial discrimination legal. The fictional author writing it, a woman named Geneva Crenshaw, is an almost omnipotent force that points out all the idealistic flaws of Bell and his fellow civil rights advocates. Under this fictional new law all employers/property owners could apply for a special license that allows them to discriminate against who they hire based on race. The license costs a fee, is taxed, is required to be openly displayed, and forces those who own the license to not hire ANYONE from the race they were discriminated against. Bell is appalled by this law, but Geneva slowly and sarcastically whittles him down until he understands and accepts the validity of her idea. To Geneva civil rights laws are, while well intentioned, completely unenforceable and therefore detrimental as a whole. She explains to Bell that “Traditional civil rights laws tend to be ineffective because they are built on a law enforcement model. They assume that most citizens will obey the law; and when law breakers are held liable, a strong warning goes out that will discourage violators and encourage compliance. But the law enforcement model for civil rights breaks down when a great number of whites are willing because of convenience, habit, distaste, fear, or simple preference—to violate the law.” (p. 77). White people operate under a sort of ‘racial nepotism’, where “whites tend to treat one another like family, at least when there's a choice between them and (black people). So that terms like 'merit' and 'best qualified' are infinitely manipulable if and when whites must explain why they reject blacks to hire 'relatives'... So, unless there's some pressing reason for hiring, renting to, or other- wise dealing with a black, many whites will prefer to hire, rent to, sell to, or otherwise deal with a white” (p. 77). Therefore, a law requiring open discrimination would have 3 benefits for black people.
1. By making discrimination against black people open and legal, the law destroys the argument that civil rights laws deny anyone the right of non-association (AKA the right not to have to interact with people you dislike). Now, anyone who tries that without paying to legally do it will be seen as a lawbreaker who deserves punishment rather than someone exercising their freedoms and deserving sympathy or admiration
2. Today, black people are the ones who ‘pay’ for anti-discrimination laws. Evidence proves that, when accounting for differences, white people are much more likely than black people to be hired to the same position, given loans, or rented to despite laws making all three illegal. By making white people literally pay to discriminate against other races, much of the joy of racism will be dampened when it has to come out of whites’ own pocketbooks.
3. Black people will no longer have to guess whether an employer, realtor, or store owner wants to discriminate against them. It will be completely out in the open.

The Last Black Hero
My least favorite of his stories. It’s essentially about a love triangle between a male black activist leader, a white female doctor, and a female black activist. The way the romance aspect of the story is written just kinda sucks, but the themes it explores are interesting. Bell’s story explores the tribulations of a fictional black civil rights leader as he is being ostracized from his organization due to the fact that he fell in love with a white woman. In a society based on white supremacy, even female beauty standards become based around the features of white women. The female black activist acknowledges that although “true love knows no boundaries”, unfortunately “black women are always being reminded of how marginal and unworthy we are. We're never smart enough or beautiful enough or supportive, sexy, understanding, and resourceful enough to deserve a good black man…For black women in particular to hold the view that we can never marry a white man is the real legacy of slavery and an unjustified restriction on choices already rendered far too narrow by the society's devastation of so many black men." (p. 97). The black leader, Jason, preached that black men and black women needed to support, love, and uphold each other and their beauty standards as a way to face white supremacy in solidarity. So him falling in love with a white woman is seen as a betrayal; he is not practicing what he preaches. The latent white supremacy embedded in American society has made it so that, even in the face of true love, dating a white person is also a way for black people to gain access to social privileges not given when they date another black person. This means that, even though the love is truly genuine, the privileges behind this love inherently corrupt it. Love is mutated from something beautiful into a way to reinforce the social construct of white supremacy. Jason is given an impossibly unfair choice, continue his work as an activist fighting for the rights for black self-determination, or have his own autonomy and be with the person he loves.

Diving a Racial Realism Theory
In this story Bell converses and shares philosophical views on racism and the struggle against it with a modern, female version of John Brown. She shares her philosophy of ‘racial realism’, which has 4 key tenets:
1. There has never been a linear progress in civil rights. It is a cyclical pattern of progress followed by backlash, reaction, and regression.
2. In fighting racism, the conversations and goals need to be set around economics rather than idealistic morality/ethics. The socioeconomic status of black people is the true indicator of the power they possess in America.
3. Struggle is what provides fulfillment in life. Satisfaction shouldn’t be looked at in terms of achieving set goals, but rather the process of living through struggle is what gives satisfaction.
4. Racism must be looked at in a realistic way, no matter how pessimistic it may seem. Myths that uphold the idea that racism is being pushed back and defeated within America must be let go of. Worshiping the idea that civil rights laws have inherently brought about equality is just a way for white people to hold a benevolent self-image of themselves while simultaneously oppressing black people.

”There are limits to what we can do with philosophy. You and I know that if the need is great enough, the rewards large enough, the temptation strong enough, we blacks can be sacrificed at will. A present fear sometimes, a distant memory always. “(p. 127).

[Bakari · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, it was great to read Michelle Alexander's introduction to Bell's classic book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well. As a law student, she read and studied Bell's books and admits that she didn't want to agree with his conclusions about the permanence of racism in America. Like many others, she clung to the belief that a post-racial America was possible. But as she writes: "Reading Bell’s words today, twenty-five years after the book was published, I find it difficult to refute the nuanced argument he weaves so gracefully—and unapologetically—in these pages."

I, too, have to agree with Ms. Alexander. Despite the decades of struggle and victories to overturn racial apartheid laws in the U.S., racial injustices, racial bigotry and White supremacy persist in this country. There are plenty of examples of the permanence of racism in major institutions of this country. Ask Black folks about their experiences in schools, the court system and jails, hospitals, housing, the corporate sector, the media, etc., and you will hear about countless incidents of racial discrimination and indifference that targeted us. Racial disparity stats also tell the stories about cops targeting African Americans, disproportionate school suspensions of Black students, and the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites. The evidence of racism abounds.

In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Bell uses allegories to critically examine how racist the country is while also pondering and critically examining his analysis.

But Bell doesn't explicitly say why he thinks racism is permanent. But I think I know why. For centuries, the wealth, privileges, and cultural status of White people were (and are) based on the exploitation and oppression of enslaved Africans for over 250 years. As abolitionists fought to overturn slavery, Whites used racial apartheid to legally discriminate and deprive Black people of civil and human rights and the ability to grow wealth in a capitalist economy. Racial oppression benefited White people both economically and culturally. But the more African Americans stood up and resisted racial oppression, the more Whites (not all Whites, mind you) continued to maintain power and keep Black people marginalized.

The strength of Black culture and humanity has been a powerful challenge to White supremacy and privilege in this country. Many Whites fear that if Black folks gain power, it will undermine their power and privilege.

Bell hardly says anything about capitalism, but it's a system, along with political power, of working-class oppression that also uses racial discrimination and prejudice to exploit Black labor and undermine real progress to dismantle racism in this country.

Bell was clear that the racist institutions of America are too steeped in racial prejudice and discrimination to ever really transform themselves. No amount of Black integration or even Black leadership in American institutions will do enough to overturn racism. Racism is systemic and engrained in the culture. Again there are plenty of stories and stats to support Bell's claim.

However, just because racism is permanent doesn't mean we give up or hold ourselves back. No! What we do instead is stop pretending that we live in a post-racial society and instead continue to expose and face the vicious forms of racial oppression that undermine Black people and other marginalized groups in America. We don't make our children feel ashamed of being Black; we teach our children about the racial realities of this country and ways to confront racism on both individual and institutional levels. We don't pretend that racism doesn't exist; we loudly show that it does. We put Whites on notice that we won't back down, and we give up.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and a 1/2 STARS

quite insightful to a new way of thinking about racial politics in America in the 90’s. Far enough away from where these giant leaps of so called progress have been made and still we wonder why is their an inherent hate towards black or other POC. Why is there a continued struggle with poverty, prisons when “equality” has been reached from a liberal perspective..



“The only effective challenge to power is one that is broad enough to make isolation impossible, and intensive enough to cause repression to affect the normal life style of as many members of society as possible. By compromising and playing at class war, we lose”
-George Jackson

[Rob Caroti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book meant to challenge perceptions and attitudes about race and facilitate debate. Bell explores several themes in the form of short allegorical stories including emigration, civil rights legislation, interracial relationships and affirmative action. If looked at purely as a work of fiction, Face at the Bottom of the Well is clearly weak. Some of the stories are so beyond the realm of possibility that they are distracting to the (this) reader; but at the same time any of them could stand alone as the focus of a discussion, which is really the point. Since racism is a topic that is sometimes hard to discuss candidly, the use of stories helps remove those barriers and encourages discussion. This is a great book-club read.

Two concepts that are explored:

Interest-convergence Theory: The idea that whites will advance the cause of racial injustice only when doing so is consistent with their own self-interest. (Does the same concept apply if you take race out of the definition?)

“Racial nepotism rather than racial animus is the major motivation for much of the discrimination blacks experience” - Matthew Goldberg

Critical Race Theory: takeoff on critical legal theory, a branch of legal scholarship that challenges the validity of concepts such as rationality, objective truth and judicial neutrality.

[Shannon Wyss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sobering portrait of the intractability of racism in the US. Bell makes a convincing case, through a series of mostly-gripping short stories, that racism is so embedded in the US that it can never be eliminated. The conversations in the stories are often very stilted since Bell uses them to convey a lot of facts about the structure of racism in this country. But if you can get past that stiltedness, the stories are great. The last one in the book, "The Space Traders," should be required reading for everyone as it sums up many of the points in Bell's book, is better written than the others, and raises many ethical questions about how the US would handle the particular situation presented in the story.

Like many other books, "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" conflates racism 98% of the time to a Black/white issue without explanation as to why it excludes other people of color. It also does little to lok at the intersections of racism and sexism (or classism or homophobia or xenophobia or anything else). And Bell could have done a better job explaining more in depth exactly why people should bother fighting racism if it's a useless struggle.

But if you want a view of race and racism that is far from mainstream but still anti-racist, Bell's book will challenge you in ways that the mainstream civil rights movement for people of color probably never will.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The permanence of racism. Will we never come out from under this?

For over three centuries, this country has promised democracy and delivered discrimination and delusions.

I don't have first-hand experience of that, but I've learned enough to know the truth of it. But will we never be able to erase racism? At least at a national level so that everyone - since we are all created equal - have the same rights and privileges? Have the same opportunity and ability to pursue happiness? I don't know. I hope so.

This is an interesting set of - I don't know what to call them - parables? Thought experiments?

They tell the story of the black life better than any kind of explanation, or exposition could. They help to see within the lives of African Americans and see how pervasive racism is and how it truly affects people.

Some of the dialogue in the stories seems forced - but then, he's not writing fiction; he's writing parables. They aren't just short stories - they are stories intended to teach lessons.

Racism's Secret Bonding is especially haunting, disturbing, and enlightening.

Recommended if you want to see a little bit of the truth in what it is like to be black in America.