Faces At The Bottom Of The Well Analysis

In the book “Faces At the Bottom of the Well” author Derrick Bell writes different fictional stories that tackle the permanence of racism in the United States. Bell was a professor at Harvard Law School, where he left his position to protest against the absence of African American women on the faculty. Him being such a prominent scholar from Harvard Law, in each story he added legal analysis to look at each issue from a different perspective. Bell main argument in this book is that “Racism is an integral permanent and indestructible component of this society.” From that quote I interpreted that racism is just not a “passing phase,” but that racism will always be a part of the American society. On the first couple of pages before the preface …show more content…
In this chapter it talks about how African American put too much faith into black leaders. Black leaders are humans too. They face difficulties and temptations just like the rest of the society, but because they are held in the spotlight. They have to be careful with every move they make. Jason Warfield was the leader of the African American Activist Association (Quad A). His African Americans followers looked up to him as a hero. He was severely injured when a bomb went off at an antiracism rally. He was sent to the Arizona Hospital to recover, but instead he found his true love Sheila. He was sent to be under her care, but after being with each other for a couple of months they had established a relationship stronger than just a doctor and patient relationship. They had fallen in love, but the hardest thing about being in love with each was that they were two different races. Sheila was white and Jason was black. They saw no color, but everyone else around them did. Neva, who was an important leader for Quad A spent many moments with Jason and developed a strong attraction towards him, but never could pursue a relationship with him because Jason didn’t want their relationship to interfere with Quad A business. So when Neva received an “anonymous letter with the photograph of Jason and Shelia seated on the park bench, their arms entwined.” Neva clearly could tell the couple was very much in love. She felt that Jason was betraying his race and going against everything he had stood for. Till this day that same scenario happens in this generation. African American women idolize black male leaders, and when they discover love with another race African American women feel, as the black male have disowned their