The Derrick Bell Reader

An authoritative collection of writings from a prominent public intellectual.

This Element explores Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its potential application to the field of public administration. It proposes specific areas within the field where a CRT framework would help to uncover and rectify structural and institutional racism. This is paramount given the high priority that the field places on social equity, the third pillar of public administration. If there is a desire to achieve social equity and justice, systematic, structural racism needs to be addressed and confronted directly. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is one example of the urgency and significance of applying theories from a variety of disciplines to the study of racism in public administration.

An authoritative collection of writings from a prominent public intellectual.

The groundbreaking, "eerily prophetic, almost haunting" work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow). In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example—including the classic story "The Space Traders"—to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American struggles for equality are doomed to fail, he writes, 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. Now with a new foreword by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, this classic book was a pioneering contribution to critical race theory scholarship, and it remains urgent and essential reading on the problem of racism in America.

_________________ 'Timely and profound' - The Observer 'A concise, beautifully written guide to the true good life, written by man of true principles and morals' - James McBride _________________ A timely look at how morals and ethics are overlooked when we try to succeed in this world, by the renowned lecturer Derrick Bell Who will YOU have to become to succeed? Most of us believe that we must compromise our integrity to get ahead in life. With material success now our overarching social goal, the pressure to succeed is stronger than it's ever been. But what does this mean for our convictions, our morals, our ideals? In his book, Derrick Bell demonstrates that it is possible to attain success and not compromise our values by practising what he describes as Ethical Ambition. Setting out seven rules with which to conduct our lives, he places ethics as central to our ambition, so we can simultaneously honour our values and our needs. Ethical Ambition will force you to re-examine your beliefs and motivate you to change your life. It is an important book for our times.

A compact introduction to the field of racial discrimination law that explains the origins, principal themes, leading voices, and new directions of this important movement in legal thought. This revised edition includes material on key issues such as colorblind jurisprudence, Latino-critical scholarship, immigration, and the rollback of affirmative action.

In The Civil Society Reader Don Eberly presents the classic writings of the leading scholars and organizers who have brought the civil society debate to the forefront of American politics.

Leading legal lights weigh in on key issues of race and the law—collected in honor of one of the originators of critical race theory “Penetrating essays on race and social stratification within policing and the law, in honor of pioneering scholar Derrick Bell.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) When Derrick Bell, one of the originators of critical race theory, turned sixty-five, his wife founded a lecture series with leading scholars, including critical race theorists, many of them Bell’s former students. Now these lectures, given over the course of twenty-five years, are collected for the first time in a volume Library Journal calls “potent” and Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, says “powerfully acknowledge[s] the persistence of structural racism.” “To what extent does equal protection protect?” asks Ian Haney López in a penetrating analysis of the gaps that remain in our civil rights legal codes. Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, describes the hypersegregation of our cities and the limits of the law’s ability to change deep-seated attitudes about race. Patricia J. Williams explores the legacy of slavery in the law’s current constructions of sanity. Anita Allen discusses competing privacy and accountability interests in the lives of African American celebrities. Chuck Lawrence interrogates the judicial backlash against affirmative action. And Michelle Alexander describes what caused her to break ranks with the civil rights community and take up the cause of those our legal system has labeled unworthy. Race, Rights, and Redemption (which was originally published in hardcover under the title Carving Out a Humanity) gathers some of our country’s brightest progressive legal stars in a volume that illuminates facets of the law that have continued to perpetuate racial inequality and to confound our nation at the start of a new millennium. With contributions by: Michelle Alexander Anita Allen Derrick Bell Stephen Bright Paul Butler John Calmore Devon W. Carbado William Carter Jr. Emma Coleman Jordan Richard Delgado Annette Gordon-Reed Jasmine Gonzales Rose Lani Guinier Cheryl I. Harris Ian Haney López Sherrilyn Ifill Charles Lawrence Kenneth W. Mack Mari Matsuda Charles Ogletree Angela Onwuachi-Willig Theodore M. Shaw Kendall Thomas Patricia J. Williams Robert A. Williams