Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Social justice advocate Bell (Lighting the Fires of Freedom) and Southerland, executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law, present incisive essays on racial injustice in America drawn from the school's Derrick Bell lecture series. Created by coeditor Bell to honor her husband, law professor and critical race theory originator Derrick Bell (1930--2011), the series invites legal scholars to discuss issues related to law and race. Though varied in tone and intent, each piece is cogently argued and offers new perspectives on familiar topics, including how racial bias is embedded in the death penalty and the value of affirmative action. Highlights include legal historian Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello, on how the absence of legal protections for marriage and family caused enslaved people to be viewed as unreliable narrators of their own history; Boston University School of Law dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig's comparison of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till to the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012; and The New Jim Crow author Michelle Alexander's discussion of regrets over how she chose clients as a practicing civil rights attorney. Deeply enriched by the classroom and courtroom experiences of its contributors, this consistently insightful collection is a valuable resource for students and teachers of the law. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
The late law professor and civil rights activist Derrick Bell, the first African American granted tenure at Harvard University, was a champion for equality who often resigned from prestigious posts in protest over non-inclusive university hiring practices. He also inspired much of the scholarship of critical race theory. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Derrick Bell Lecture Series at New York University School of Law, Bell's wife, Janet Dewart Bell (Lighting the Fires of Freedom), who founded the series, and Southerland (executive director, Ctr. on Race, Inequality, and the Law, New York Univ. Sch. of Law) present this anthology of scholarly lectures on race theory. Here, legal scholar Patricia Williams contends that systemic ownership of people through slavery led to the development of sexual archetypes of race; The New Jim Crow author and civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander writes about justice and mass incarceration. Providing a lens on issues of race in America and how scholars have responded, this potent work draws conclusions about systemic injustice and race. VERDICT Scholars and lay readers alike will be enlightened and spurred to thought and discussion.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Penetrating essays on race and social stratification within policing and the law, in honor of pioneering scholar Derrick Bell (1930-2011). At the beginning, the editors explain the anthology's genesis: "Founded twenty-five years ago in 1995, the Derrick Bell Lectures were originally created as a birthday present from Janet Bell to her husband, and were designed to highlight not only Derrick Bell's legacy as the father of the legal studies movement, but also to give that movement exposure in the academy and beyond." Some speakers acknowledged Bell's outsized personality; he'd repeatedly resigned from prestigious institutions to protest wan diversity efforts. Charles Ogletree notes, "the craziness is that he has such insight and foresight that it's unimaginable," before narrating the unequal legal landscape of Black America, even following Gunnar Myrdal's landmark 1944 examination of the U.S. Charles Lawrence discusses backlash against affirmative action even as recruitment of Black students plummeted at prominent law schools, a topic of concern to Bell. Richard Delgado considers Bell's research as a "toolkit" to address how each advance for racial justice "is cut back by narrow judicial interpretation, foot dragging, and delay." Patricia Williams anticipates current discourse in a frank reflection on the echo of sexual abuse in persistent racial archetypes, denoting society's refusal to acknowledge "the actual historical meaning of slavery as a system of human ownership." Bell himself contributes "Racism as the Ultimate Deception," in which he concludes, "the only defense against the racism phantasm as it operates in the real world is absolute honesty about our actions, our desires, our goals, or as close to that ever elusive dream as we can come." Other prominent contributors include Lani Guinier, Paul Butler, Stephen Bright, and Michelle Alexander. Many powerfully acknowledge the persistence of structural racism and offer in-depth discussion regarding particular aspects of the law's effect on marginalized communities, resonant in an era of White supremacy's bid for mainstream acceptance. An erudite collection to alarm conservatives and gratify progressives. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
