"On the one hand, contemporary color barriers are certainly less visible as a result of our successful effort to strip the law’s endorsement from the hated Jim Crow signs. Today one can travel for thousands of miles across the country and never see a public facility designated as “Colored” or “White.” Indeed, the very absence of visible signs of discrimination creates an atmosphere of racial neutrality and encourages whites to believe that racism is a thing of the past. On the other hand, the general use of so-called neutral standards to continue exclusionary practices reduces the effectiveness of traditional civil rights laws, while rendering discriminatory actions more oppressive than ever. Racial bias in the pre-Brown era was stark, open, unalloyed with hypocrisy and blank-faced lies. We blacks, when rejected, knew who our enemies were. They were not us! Today, because bias is masked in unofficial practices and “neutral” standards, we must wrestle with the question whether race or some individual failing has cost us the job, denied us the promotion, or prompted our being rejected as tenants for an apartment. Either conclusion breeds frustration and alienation—and a rage we dare not show to others or admit to ourselves."
-
from Derrick Bell’s Faces At the Bottom of the Well.
One of the most brilliant thinkers of our time. Reading his work this afternoon makes his recent passing all the more disheartening.
12.21.11 ♥ 9-
thambos reblogged this from kenzmirage
-
kenzmirage reblogged this from queennubian
-
its-deja reblogged this from queennubian
-
miswritten liked this
-
rumrumrumble liked this
-
bollywoodsuperstar posted this
