Derrick Bell

“The Portland school board's policy equated integration and racial assimilation. This policy, Rist explains, is a "means of socializing nonwhite students to…

— Derrick Bell

“What neither Warren nor most of the rest of us recognized was that segregation was not, as Nirej Sekhorn put it, simply…

— Derrick Bell

“Regrettably, I paid far less attention to all those students less able to overcome the hostility and the sense of alienation they…

— Derrick Bell

However self-sufficient we may fancy ourselves, we exist only in relation -- to our friend, family, and life partners; to those we…

— Derrick Bell

“As with most voluntary school integration programs, dispersal of the black children was the norm. In Portland, no more than forty-five black…

— Derrick Bell

“A few white children were friendly, but others were hostile or simply distant. Teachers unthinkingly added to both problems by physically separating…

— Derrick Bell

“Today, many whites oppose all social reform as "welfare programs for blacks." They ignore the fact that poor whites have employment, education,…

— Derrick Bell

“Harry Belafonte explained: [T]he Second World War happened, and my mother told me that the fight against Hitler was our fight, and…

— Derrick Bell

It appears that my worst fears have been realized: we have made progress in everything yet nothing has changed

— Derrick Bell

Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor.

— Derrick Bell

However self-sufficient we may fancy ourselves, we exist only in relation - to our friend, family, and life partners; to those we…

— Derrick Bell

“Here is a foundation for understanding today what was clear to only a few fifty years earlier. Now we can see how…

— Derrick Bell

“The Court ignored his racial configuration and simply applied the "one drop" rule. If Plessy was white and ejected from a white…

— Derrick Bell

Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for blacks.

— Derrick Bell

The challenge throughout has been to tell what I view as the truth about racism without causing disabling despair.

— Derrick Bell

“This renewed politics of otherness not only allowed entire categories of poor whites to develop a powerful sense of racial belonging, but…

— Derrick Bell

“The goal was organized resistance to racial subjugation, and its harassing effect was probably more potent precisely because they risked so much…

— Derrick Bell

“Most school desegregation suits were brought on behalf of blacks, but Mexican Americans also suffered various forms of school segregation throughout the…

— Derrick Bell

Courage is a finite resource, it is exhausted by the terrors we face.

— Derrick Bell

“But few black parents had any substantial contact with the school. Rist doubts their assessment would have been so positive had they…

— Derrick Bell

“In ways so closely tied to an individual's sense of self that it may not be apparent, the set of assumptions, privileges,…

— Derrick Bell

All ethical people strive to choose "right" over "easy" when confronted by situations that force them to choose one or the other.

— Derrick Bell

I live to harass white folks.

— Derrick Bell

Courage is a decision you make to act in a way that works through your own fear for the greater good as…

— Derrick Bell

Self-esteem is like a difficult-to-cultivate flower. It requires frequent nurturing that occurs when you keep your word and follow through on your…

— Derrick Bell