Is Racism A Permanent Feature Of American Society Analysis

“Is Racism a Permanent Feature of American Society?” takes the reader into a deep debate between two scholars. Derrick Bell believes racism will be an everlasting problem faced by African Americans in our society; and Dinesh D’Souza believes the exact opposite. He believes other factors occurring in the society affects blacks and the problems they hold racism accountable for. Derrick Bell argues his point by starting off addressing slavery. He states, “Slavery has left a significant portion of the race ‘with life-long poverty and soul-devastating despair..” (173). He argues the dreadful experience suffered by African Americans’ family members and ancestors still troubles them until this day and is even more painful due to the fact blacks are still being treated differently by whites. He then mentions the successful black figures in the society that overcame racism and the negativity shown to …show more content…
Although, he admits “even the most successful of us blacks are haunted by the plight of our less fortunate brethren who struggle for existence in what some social scientists call the ‘underclass’” (175). Basically, Bell believes regardless of an individual’s status or wealth, he or she will still be affected or reminded of the inequality suffered by African Americans. An important point Derrick made that stood out to me was that “whites fear blacks getting ahead of them and succeeding so they choose not to support blacks or engage in programs designed to benefit blacks” (176). In actuality, they’re failing to understand that helping blacks better themselves will better the economy as a whole. Another argument presented by Mr. Bell in the issue was discrimination. He drew attention to the fact a person can travel miles and miles around the United States