Watching children chained to each other in Chicago's Juvenile Court causes me to think of Derrick Bell. The racialized image of bondage, slavery and chain gangs evoked by the passage of these youths is unavoidable. Yet hundreds of committed employees carry on each day, undismayed by this silent assault on the dignity of children. I hear Professor Bell whisper to me when I … [Read more...] about Is Racism Permanent? (November-December 1993 P&R Issue)
Symposium Responses
Is Racism Permanent? (November-December 1993 P&R Issue)
If anyone needs convincing about the permanent nature of racism, I recommend a visit to Blakely, Georgia. Located a 3 1/2-hour drive south of Atlanta, this small, rural community distinguished itself by allowing its fire department to be run by the Ku Klux Klan. The fire chief told coworkers that fires in the black community "beautify the neighborhood." Until recently, … [Read more...] about Is Racism Permanent? (November-December 1993 P&R Issue)
Is Racism Permanent? (November-December 1993 P&R Issue)
In his 1992 book Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Derrick Bell posited a provocative thesis: 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. … [Read more...] about Is Racism Permanent? (November-December 1993 P&R Issue)
