Part 2 of a two part ert
An interview with
· Detrick Bell
by H rb Boyd
new.
Bell, perturbed over the I w
chool rei uctance to hire a "woman
of color," took an unpaid leave of
ab ence two years ago. The law
hool, citing a university rule limit­
ing faculty 1 ve to two consecutive
years, construed Bell's refusal to
return at the end of the leave a
resignation.
Ha rvard 's pre ident Neil
Rudenstine re ched a imilar con­
clusion. Bell requested and received •
an informal hearing before Harvard
University' governing board, but
that body upheld the president'
decision. Bell, who spent 16 years
teaching constitutional law at Har­
vard, is not sitting on his hands.
Currently he i a vi iting profes­
sor at New York Univers)tY Law
School, and is excited about the
release of his econd book of
provocative sketches, Faces At The
Bottom Of The Well: The Per­
manence of Racism (Basic Books,
September 23, 1992).
RACE AND RIGHTS
In his previous book, And WeAre
Not Saved, which Professor Henry
Louis Gates., Jr. commended for gal­
vanizing the debate over race and
rights, BeJl introduced hi unique
style of writing about law and litera­
ture. "I call it conceptual thinking,"
, Bell explained. "It's a way of tack­
ling a problem by backing away and
reviewing that problem in the con­
text of the environment in which it is
occuring."
Bell expanded the practice of
utilizing hypothetical fact situations,
a staple of classroom teaching in
most law chools, in order to provide
a different perspective on an issue.
"Basic truths," Bell contends, "par­
ticularly when addressing emotion­
ally charged ubjects like race, are
easier to address using fictional set­
rings."
"/ believe that
racism in this
coun try is
more
.
pervasive
than ever. Of
coursenowit
is much more
invidious and
sophisticated"
'/
This blend of racial facts and al­
legory takes several engrossing turns
in his latest collection of stories,
Faces At The Pottom Of The Well,
particularly in the imaginative story
of space travelers from a distant star
who land on earth and seek to ex­
change uch vital gifts as afe
nuclear power and detoxifying
agents for all African-Americans.
"You know that the powers that be
would trade us off," Bell said with
laughter.
Other tale in' the book include
Atlanti ri ing from the ocean,
providing hope for an African­
American homeland, anJ White
Citizens for Black Survival, a group
training in warfar and preparing un­
dcrground helters for an imminent
Black holocau t. While the. e
room and the
word proce or-hi boo Race,
Ra ism And American Law,' in i
third edition, nd i frequently ed
text in Civil Righ I w cou e
cro the nation-Bell i c ele
mp igner for hum n righ
ought fter pe er. "Well, I m not
in the $15,000 range by ny means,"
he joked, "but I do 11 right. I m
chedul d to be on p nel with Cor­
nel West and Mareia Gillespie in
September. We will be di cussing
Rev. AI Sharpton' Senatorial bid."
p
IG ME TS
"People le rn by doing," he
noted, " nd my tudents nd I keep
the ide nd p pers going b ck and
forth." Being a vi i ting prof or, he
aid, means he doesn't have to attend
11 tho e faculty meetings, which
may help tu tifle his temptation to
become actively involved in ch ng­
ing things at the cbool,
Bell promised the dean of the law
chool, John Sexton, a former stu-
dent 0 hi t H rv rd, th the'
e him lot of trouble.
h hi
re e reb-at
D HI de ire?
"On d y I would li to t 1 up
behindonoftho e B pti tcbol th t
orne tim appe r t outdoor con­
certs nd add my voice," h chortled.
Should uch n opportunity ever
occur, we can expect Bell' voice to
oar from th choir nd command the
audience with a riveting 010, giv n
the power of hi p rsona.
As h h mad hi mar in the
arena of j uri prudence and on the
civil rights front, Bell i now taking
out a special niche for him elf in the
world of literature. If hi "concep­
tual thinking i not an entirely
original m thod, hi tori certainly
are, and he demonstrate tim and
again that he is a thinker's thinker,
and a thoroughly engaging one at
that.
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