Originally published in 1992, Derrick Bell’s Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism is a collection of nine stories that illuminate the reality of racism in the United States. Bell, a lawyer who participated in important legal cases of the 20th-century civil rights movement and a legal scholar who shaped a generation of thinkers on race and the law, is best known today as one of the foundational figures in the legal school of thought known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). Faces at the Bottom of the Well, with its use of the conventions of fiction to examine the limits of efforts to end racism in America, is a groundbreaking text that periodically lands on the New York Times bestseller list. This guide is based on the Basic Books 2018 print edition.

Summary

In the preface, Bell advances his central argument that racism is a permanent and central feature of the United States and reminds the reader that Geneva Crenshaw, fictional author and interlocutor (listener or audience) for discussions about the pieces that follow appeared in a previous work.

In the introduction, Bell previews the central themes of the book.

In Chapter 1: “Racial Symbols: A Limited Legacy,” a dialogue between a law professor and a limousine driver reveals the limits and importance of symbols of African American progress.

In Chapter 2: “The Afroatlantica Awakening,” a short story and dialogue between fictional figure Geneva Crenshaw and a law professor, the appearance of an idyllic and resource-rich island in which only African Americans can survive upends race relations in the United States.

In Chapter 3: “The Racial Preference Licensing Act,” a short story, the United States gives up on affirmative action and integration due to their inability to achieve racial equality. A program that licenses racial discrimination and forces holders of the license to contribute to a fund for African Americans takes the place of these failed efforts.

In Chapter 4: “The Last Black Hero,” a short story, a civil rights activist nearly dies after a bombing, then disappoints his racial peers by falling in love with the white doctor that nurses him back to health. Crenshaw warns the law professor that the likelihood of such an attack is higher than the law professor wants to admit.

In Chapter 5: “Divining a Racial Realism Theory,” a short story, an African American law professor encounters a white woman involved with a militia group whose purpose is to defend and shelter African Americans in case of a widescale assault on their survival occurs.

In Chapter 6: “The Rules of Racial Standing,” a short story, an unnamed deity reveals the rules that govern when an African American person gains the credibility to speak to white audiences about race. Crenshaw and the law professor debate the accuracy of these rules.

In Chapter 7: “A Law Professor’s Protest,” a short story, Harvard University only advances a program to increase African American representation among its faculty after its president and all its African American faculty and staff die in a bombing. The law professor defends his decision to use fiction and other genres to highlight the problem of racism in law schools.

In Chapter 8: “Racism’s Secret Bonding,” data storms transmit the factual and emotional reality of racism and racial disparities directly into white people’s consciousness, driving the United States to at last address racism. Crenshaw and the professor conclude that educating white people about racism will not end racism because white people already know about it and understand that their racial privileges are an important part of their identities.

In Chapter 9: “The Space Traders,” a short story, the United States agrees to trade all its African American citizens to an alien civilization in exchange for gold, clean energy, and technology to clean up the environment, despite the protests of traditional civil rights groups, allies, and a lone African American conservative.

In “Beyond Despair,” the epilogue, Bell argues that African American resilience and creativity in the face of the permanence of racism provide examples of how best to confront contemporary political challenges.