Derrick Bell’s Faces at the Bottom of the Well
In 1992, few people outside of law school professors working on racial justice had even heard of the term Critical Race Theory. CRT was a new lens through which lawyers looked at the history of law in the United States, and it sparked a revolution in thought and action.
Today, I would be hard-pressed to find anyone who has never heard the term CRT, and everyone seems to have a different opinion about it. Either it is a necessary framework for us to understand the past and the present, or it is the devil incarnate trying to tear down every white hero of the past and present and put Angela Davis on the $1 bill.
Derrick Bell (1930–2011) was one of the early thinkers in CRT. He was the first tenured Black Harvard Law professor and the first Black Dean of the Oregon School of Law. He opened the door to other BIPOC professors and centered the fight for racial equity in his life’s work. He also wrote several books, including this month’s #RaWBC selection, Faces at the Bottom of the Well, which is a collection of stories that use fiction to illuminate truths about race and racism in the United States.
A central theme of Derrick Bell’s collection of stories is that racism is a permanent feature of life in the United States. He presents a counterpoint to the story of race and racism that I learned as a white guy growing up in the 70s and 80s. I had the sense that the moral arc of history was bending toward justice and the end of racism was just around the corner. I looked around and I thought I saw slow but steady progress toward racial equality.
Professor Bell calls bullshit on the steady progress story. He says race and racism are baked into the United States from the beginning and it is not a bug in the system but a defining feature. Once we come to terms with that, we can start to see ourselves as a nation for who we are and who we have always been, a racist society that depends on racism to continue in order to stay the course.
Professor Bell uses allegorical stories in order to drive home his point about the permanence of race and racism. He would use those stories in his graduate-level courses to spark discussion and debate, and in the stories, he gives credible voices to multiple perspectives.
When I started reading the book, I thought it might be something of a time capsule. I was just finishing college in 1992 when the book was first published, and I remember those years with a mix of a bit of nostalgia and dread. But each chapter felt like a time capsule only for the names and cultural references used. The rest could have been written yesterday.
Each story feels topical to the debates we are having in the racial reckoning we find ourselves in in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Change the names, and the fundamental points still hold. Perhaps that is the strongest argument for Bell’s thesis of the intractable nature of racism: we are having the exact same conversations thirty years later!
Given that Bell’s work is still so necessary at this moment, it is worthwhile looking at his conclusions about what is to be done in the face of the intractable nature of race and racism.
Derrick Bell does not advocate giving up. Rather he finds hope in recognizing reality for what it is. It is the first step in any sort of legitimate response.
Bell’s work reminds me of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, which we reviewed last month. Wilkerson looks at the persistence of race and racism and posits that they fill a purpose in society. She looks to other societies that functioned as caste systems and she sees enough parallels to call the United States a caste system. Her analysis is predicated on the idea that, until caste is recognized and eliminated, race is a permanent fixture of life in the USA. Without Bell and other early thinkers in CRT, we would not get the outpouring of analysis from writers like Wilkerson.
In a new Forward to Faces, Michelle Alexander writes rhetorically “If racism is permanent, then what is the point of struggle?”
Derrick Bell did not think that struggle was pointless, rather he thought that meaning and purpose could be gained through resistance.
In the Preface, he writes about Mrs. Biona McDonald, a civil rights activist Bell met in Mississippi. He asked her how she found the courage to continue despite the constant harassment and small chance of victory. She replied “I can’t speak for everyone, but as for me, I am an old woman. I lives to harass white folks.” According to Bell, “at the point that she determined to resist her oppression, she was triumphant.”
Michelle Alexander writes “I now understand that accepting the permanence of racism in this country does not mean accepting racism…if we broaden our view and sharpen our focus, we just might see that our liberation struggles aren’t limited to our national borders and that our movements, if we take them seriously enough, can help to rebirth this nation and reimagine our world.”
The United States is built on race and racism, but that doesn’t mean the fight isn’t worth it.
Perhaps any fight for the equality of races might be destined to fail because it is predicated on the idea of race being real. If we accept that race exists, then we may have lost the battle, because then the problem is all about racism, when the actual problem is race itself. As long as we are stuck with race and the inherent caste system that goes with it, then racism will come along for the ride.
It is my own challenge to imagine a world without race, starting with understanding how my own whiteness manifests and letting go of any attachment I might have to being white.
Michelle Alexander asks us to respond to Bell by reimagining our world and rebirthing the nation. Perhaps white folks are right to be so afraid of CRT. If the United States is truly unredeemable regarding race, then people like Alexander and the other folks in this generation of anti-racism thinkers are pushing for a #NewAmerica. That could seem threatening to those who have power and status in the current version.
In the first essay, Divining our Racial Themes, which functions as an introduction to the collection, Derrick Bell notes that “Because of an irrational but easily roused fear that any social reform will unjustly benefit blacks, whites fail to support the programs this country desperately needs to address the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, both black and white.” That sentence could have been written yesterday, and in fact, perfectly describes the thesis of Heather McGhee’s revealing book, The Sum of Us.
So if #NewAmerica would eliminate race that would benefit white folks too. Sign me up.
Unfortunately, to get to #NewAmerica we will also need to imagine solutions to our scapegoating problem. In that first essay, Bell says “In addition, even when non-racist policies might bring a benefit, whites may rely on discrimination against blacks as a unifying factor and a safety valve for frustrations during economic hard times.” Again, I feel that Bell is describing our current situation in #OldAmerica. Inflation hits, and people find ways to blame Black and Brown people. I would say he was prescient, except his thesis is that things don’t change in America and he was describing a reality that was true in 1992 and simply continues to be true in 2022.
Bell’s point is that when the chips are down, white folks in the USA will be called upon to close ranks and scapegoat Black folks instead of blaming those in power. This is why racism will not go away — because it fills a role for those in power.
To imagine #NewAmerica we would need to correctly assign blame whenever the shit hits the fan, and that would almost always point the finger at unchecked capitalism and the hoarding of wealth. Perhaps this is why the anti-CRT folks go after CRT by painting its adherents as Marxists. Any critique of race without a critique of wealth inequality leaves in place the scapegoating problem.
As an aside, I don’t think that Bell would think much of me talking about #NewAmerica. He would probably say that it misses the point. It is too hopeful for change. And, as a white person, I shouldn’t hold onto that hope. I get that. I am trying to understand how race and racism work and how they hurt white people, too. In my growing awareness of how race functions in America, I want it to be gone and I want to believe that it will easily be defeated. It won’t.
Bell concludes his Introduction by saying “I hope to emphasize the necessity of moving beyond the comforting belief that time and the generosity of its people will eventually solve America’s racial problem.” Live in the real world, Bell says, but don’t stop fighting (until #NewAmerica is real for everybody), because the fight itself will function as a strength for each of us on an individual level and as a big middle finger to the powers that be.
In the chapter Afrolantica Awakening, Bell imagines a new continent that arises in the Atlantic. This new continent appears rich in resources and colonizer countries quickly move in to claim it. In a twist, the continent is toxic to any human except African Americans. This prompts discussions of whether Black people in America should emigrate.
If we accept Bell’s thesis that racism is baked into the way the United States operates, then wouldn’t it make sense to just leave?
This sentiment is echoed in the final chapter, The Space Traders. In that thought experiment, Bell lands an advanced alien space armada in the United States. The aliens offer the USA immeasurable wealth and technology that could save the planet from catastrophe, and in return, they ask for every single African American to be given to them. In the story, it is not clear whether leaving with the alien armada would be a reward or a punishment, but it is clear what the outcome would be: a United States without Black people.
Both of these scenarios remind me of Abraham Lincoln and other anti-slavery people who advocated for emigration before and during the Civil War. Schemes were proposed to send Black people to Liberia or to Central America. Further, both remind me of ethnic cleansing and genocide throughout history, including and not limited to the NAZIs, the Balkans, Rwanda, and Japanese Internment.
Interestingly, in the Space Traders story, Bell has the corporations come down on the side of keeping Black people here. They claim that the gifts of aliens would undermine their profits and that Black people are necessary as consumers and exploitable workers. This section exposes the role of race in our capitalist system. When offered an end to the “race problem,” corporations refused. It made me see that if Black people magically disappeared, our system would invent new Black people. The problem isn’t Black people. The problem is the exploitative system that demands a permanent underclass of people to fill the scapegoat role.
In the chapter The Racial Preference Licensing Act, Bell imagines what would happen if white politicians took his thesis to heart and made a policy that acknowledged the intractability of racism. Ironically, such a policy might actually make a difference. It is as if all of our current policies are hamstrung because politicians want to believe we live in a colorblind world.
In an acknowledgment of racism, Bell’s hypothetical white politicians suggest a law to legalize segregation. The Act would say that any business or institution that wants to exclude Black people can pay a fee and then post the sign that says they can legally segregate. The fee would go to bolstering Black-owned businesses and education for Black people. Those who do not pay the fee would be subject to strict enforcement of integration standards.
Bell imagines that it would be problematic for those businesses that elect to pay the fee and segregate. First, they might lose white customers who currently have plausible deniability (“I just want to live in that gated all-white community because of the good schools!”). And second, the fees would be high enough that it would constitute a real financial pain.
This law would only work as Bell proposes if integration was rigorously enforced on entities that do not pay the fee so that those who want to segregate would have to do it publicly with a sign on the window and pay a price for it.
In Bell’s analysis, present-day defacto segregation continues because it operates in the shadows with a sheen of deniability. Bell talks about how white “racial nepotism” quietly operates and functions to exclude Black people from opportunity. The Preference Licensing Act would bring it out in the open, it would be clear. Businesses would have to go “all-in” on choosing to be racist.
He concludes his essay by cautioning “This story is not intended to urge actual adoption of a racial preference licensing law, but to provoke blacks and their white allies to look beyond traditional civil rights views.”
Where are the white people in Bell’s narrative?
In a sense, this book is as much or more about white people as it is about Black people’s experiences. In his analysis, most white people are trapped in a well about halfway down. Instead of using a rope to get everyone out, we are hypnotized looking down at the faces of the Black people at the bottom of the well. This book is an indictment of white people and whiteness.
In most cases, we white people are duped into thinking that we are looking out for our own interests through a false notion of white solidarity. In The Space Traders, the majority of white people end up voting to send the Black population into an unknown future in space. Traders describes perfectly how white people voted in 2016 and 2020. When given the choice between an overt racist who offers a veneer of white supremacy and the Democrats with promises of social programs that might benefit everyone, white people went with the white supremacist.
In The Last Black Hero and Divining a Racial Realism Theory Bell gives us two white women with good intentions.
In the Hero story, Bell imagines a Black male anti-racism activist who is severely injured in an attempt to kill him. In the course of his recovery, he falls in love with his white doctor. Bell considers the impact of race and racism on this relationship, and he introduces the character of a Black woman who had carried on the hero’s anti-racism work in his absence, coming to call the hero back home to his work and his race and maybe to her. The story introduces the complexity of interracial relationships in anti-racism spaces, without giving an out to white people.
In Racial Realism, we find a Black law professor out in the Oregon wilderness, looking for a little peace and quiet. He gets shot at by and then enters into a conversation with a white woman who one might describe as a militant ally. This woman is part of a fictional group of white people who are prepping for a coming racial cleansing by planning where and how to shelter Black people.
In the Racial Realism story, we see the logical conclusion for white allies of Bell’s intractable racism thesis. We would need to be ready with weapons to defend Black people. Staying at home and reading anti-racist books is not enough. I am reminded of white people like Heather Heyer who put their lives on the line and sometimes died to stand up for Black lives.
One of his points in Racial Realism is that civil rights laws and advances in legal status have sometimes actually functioned to harm Black people. This is because white lawyers and judges can point to the mere existence of the laws and say that because the laws are on the books there is no need for affirmative action or other initiatives. This is another chapter that could have been written yesterday and not 30 years ago. Affirmative action is all but dead in education, and voting protections have been declared unnecessary. It is a farce.
This book is not about despair. Recognizing the realities of race and racism in the United States can be liberatory for anyone who wants to engage in the struggle. In Bell’s words: “No, you don’t understand. For a black person in this society, the truth is never despairing.”
In the end, both white and Black people can find meaning and satisfaction in the struggle. White people who accept racial realism can put ourselves in a position to be real allies and not Pollyanna colorblind “not-racists.” Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times describes this as an existential worldview as worthy of Albert Camus as MLK. In his epilogue, Bell writes: “We yearn that our civil rights work will be crowned with success, but what we really want — want even more than success — is meaning. . . . This engagement and commitment is what black people have had to do since slavery: making something out of nothing.”
Everything is connected. Many of us are concerned about the climate crisis. Similar forces that perpetuate racism as a permanent feature of American society can be tied to our collective carbon emissions. If we hope for the system to slowly change, then we will be constantly disappointed. Only when we accept the intransigence of the problem under the current system can we make the existential mind shift that Bell himself made. The truth will set us all free. Essentially, “we are f***ed, now let’s get to work!” If anything, activists can take the most inspiration from Mrs. Biona McDonald who “lives to harass white folks.” We all can.
Bell walked the walk. As a law professor and again as a Dean he twice resigned in protest in order to stand with minority job candidates. He was a civil rights lawyer and had the experience to criticize the failures of the civil rights movement from a place of care and love for all those involved.
Bell lived long enough to see Barack Obama become president, but I can guess he would also have predicted the backlash and reactionary forces that we are seeing today.
In truth, each of his stories, thirty years later, could still provoke a rich discussion or many-paged Medium essay response. The Rules of Racial Standing story perfectly captures the controversy around Kanye and Kyrie. A Law Professor’s Protest bites deep at higher education's ongoing hypocrisy. I encourage everyone, especially white people, to pick up a copy and give Derrick Bell a read.
I’m excited to see what Laura M. Quainoo and other #RaWBC folks thought of this provocative collection of essays.
© 2022 Andrew Gaertner. All rights reserved.
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