What's wrong with Derrick Bell?

[A'isha]

Embarrassingly bad. "Cosmic slop" is a pretty accurate title.

Well, it was mid-90's HBO...

At any rate, what in particular did you find so objectionable about either the HBO adaptation or, preferably, Bell's original short story, such that Obama should be tarnished by sheer vitrue of his association with the author?

 

[angrysoba]

People like Bell find racism under every stone, just like a Bigfoot believer sees Bigfoot in every fuzzy blob in low-res videos or out-of-focus still photos.

Derrick Bell was born in 1930 in the US. Do you really think he had to look under any rocks to find racism or that it was a figment of his imagination?

 

[Darth Rotor]

I would like to thank Travis for his post.

 

[Brainster]

Well, it was mid-90's HBO...

At any rate, what in particular did you find so objectionable about either the HBO adaptation or, preferably, Bell's original short story, such that Obama should be tarnished by sheer vitrue of his association with the author?

Did I say that Obama should be tarnished? As for the film (I'm not inclined to go looking for the short story), I prefer my blaxploitation to feature some action sequences with Pam Grier. The story is wooden, the characters one-dimensional. But (like the Pam Grier movies) it's entertaining if you take it as comedy instead of drama. I did get a horselaugh out of the woman who claimed that the biggest drawback to getting rid of all the blacks would be the guilt that whites would feel about it. If I felt that Bell was doing his story tongue-in-cheek, I might give him some credit as a satirist.

Blaxploitation prevents us from moving to a post-racist future, which would be good for society, right? The problem for race hustlers like Bell and Farrakhan is that they would be marginalized. Hence the ridiculous stuff like claiming blacks are more subjugated than at any time since slavery. On the face of it, that's such a ridiculous claim that even the New York Times raises its eyebrows. But if your marketability is based on being a crusader against white racism, then you have a vested interest in telling people that racism is bad and getting worse.

 

[WildCat]

Derrick Bell was born in 1930 in the US. Do you really think he had to look under any rocks to find racism or that it was a figment of his imagination?

Did you miss the part where he claims "black subjugation" was worse in 1992 than any time since slavery? Maybe living in Japan you have no idea what life is ike in the USA, but 1992 was far better for blacks than 1960 was, or 1950, and certainly 1865.

People like Bell need to find racism, whether it exists or not.

 

[mhaze]

Did you miss the part where he claims "black subjugation" was worse in 1992 than any time since slavery? Maybe living in Japan you have no idea what life is ike in the USA, but 1992 was far better for blacks than 1960 was, or 1950, and certainly 1865.

People like Bell need to find racism, whether it exists or not.

Look, have some compassion. Someone makes a career of out finding racism, then after a while it gets harder and harder to find.

What do you want them to do, have a mid life career crisis? Go back to college? Learn a new trade?

 

[angrysoba]

Did you miss the part where he claims "black subjugation" was worse in 1992 than any time since slavery?

People like Bell need to find racism, whether it exists or not.

Who cares if he said it was worse in 1992 than since slavery?

If you are bothered by that then it seems that you need to find outrage where there is none. You must be incredibly thin-skinned (no pun intended) if that offends you.

On the other hand, your comparison to pointing out racism being similar to Bigfoot sightings is akin to saying that racism is a figment of his imagination and it doesn't exist.

 

[Noztradamus]

Well, it was mid-90's HBO...

At any rate, what in particular did you find so objectionable about either the HBO adaptation or, preferably, Bell's original short story, such that Obama should be tarnished by sheer vitrue of his association with the author?

Plot sounds like a incredibly lame "homage" to Kornbluth's The Space Merchants.

Amazing how somenone so lacking in original thought gets a job in an US university

 

[WildCat]

Who cares if he said it was worse in 1992 than since slavery?

I really don't care, this is par for the course for those making a living off of finding racism. Note this is my first comment on Bell, and it's been 20 years after his idiotic statement and several months after his death.

If you are bothered by that then it seems that you need to find outrage where there is none. You must be incredibly thin-skinned (no pun intended) if that offends you.

Yes, I'm so thin-skinned I witheld comment for 20 years.

On the other hand, your comparison to pointing out racism being similar to Bigfoot sightings is akin to saying that racism is a figment of his imagination and it doesn't exist.

A professional racism activist will find racism everywhere, whether it actually exists or not. Just like Bigfoot believers find signs of Bigfoot wherever they look.

But who am I to judge? I only live in the USA, I guess I don't have the clear view of it you have in Japan.

 

[fuelair]

What's wrong with Derrick Bell?



He was caught teaching while Black. I think it's still a felony in parts of the South so..........

 

[angrysoba]

I really don't care, this is par for the course for those making a living off of finding racism. Note this is my first comment on Bell, and it's been 20 years after his idiotic statement and several months after his death.

It's your first comment on him because you had probably never heard of him before Breitbart and co attempted to work their audience up into a fit of faux-outrage.

Anyway, if the comment is true then it was something he said following the beating of Rodney King. This may or may not have had something to do with the comment.

Yes, I'm so thin-skinned I witheld comment for 20 years.

So, it doesn't offend you and you were only pretending to be outraged. Okay, then.

A professional racism activist will find racism everywhere, whether it actually exists or not. Just like Bigfoot believers find signs of Bigfoot wherever they look.

Right, Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin, A Philip Randolf et al were always just making a fuss about nothing. Always whining on about some thing that they call racism which doesn't exist and never affects anyone personally, well, it doesn't affect you personally which amounts to the same thing.

But who am I to judge? I only live in the USA, I guess I don't have the clear view of it you have in Japan.

Ha ha ha! This is pathetic special pleading. It is common enough for people to feel like they can opine on any subject from around the world and not have to actually live in the place they are talking about. Why is it that you can talk knowledgably about the domestic situations of various parts of the Middle East and yet think that others aren't allowed to express their own opinions on the United States? Why don't you show why I am wrong about something instead of acting petulant?

 

[crimresearch]

Plot sounds like a incredibly lame "homage" to Kornbluth's The Space Merchants.

Amazing how somenone so lacking in original thought gets a job in an US university

Why you're right!

The word 'Space' in the title of both works makes them identical clones, even though the actual content is entirely different.

:rolleyes

 

[crimresearch]

Did you miss the part where he claims "black subjugation" was worse in 1992 than any time since slavery? Maybe living in Japan you have no idea what life is ike in the USA, but 1992 was far better for blacks than 1960 was, or 1950, and certainly 1865.

People like Bell need to find racism, whether it exists or not.

Preach on brother man... tell them all about what it's really like to be a minority in the USA living under the Bigfoot-like hoax of non-existent racism.

 

[leftysergeant]

To those of you who claim that racism is dead, I would point out that not many of the racists who were alive in 1965 are dead, nor have those who have passed away done so without spawning a new generation of mouth-breathing swine who model their racial attitudes on those of their ancestors.

the low-lifes who tried to shoot me and a certain young woman in 1968 are quite possibly still alive and keeping the hatred alive with them.

If racism is dead, why are there still cess pools like Stormfront polluting the internet?

Why are there armed terror cells forming and stockpiling weapons all over the world? Some of the sites I have checked out from Germany and Russia are blood-chilling.

Some people just never learn.

 

[Brainster]

Who cares if he said it was worse in 1992 than since slavery?

If you are bothered by that then it seems that you need to find outrage where there is none. You must be incredibly thin-skinned (no pun intended) if that offends you.

Damn right it's offensive. Maybe you don't mind your society being called racist, but I do. And it's worthy enough of comment that the NY Freaking Times included it in its obituary of the man.

 

[332nd]

Has anyone found that quote from '92? I would like to read it in context but I can't seem to find it.

 

[WildCat]

It's your first comment on him because you had probably never heard of him before Breitbart and co attempted to work their audience up into a fit of faux-outrage someone posted a particularly idiotic thing he said in this thread.

ftfy

Anyway, if the comment is true then it was something he said following the beating of Rodney King. This may or may not have had something to do with the comment.

"If the comment is true"?

No mention of Rodney King is made in the So, it doesn't offend you and you were only pretending to be outraged. Okay, then.[/quote]
I'm not even pretending to be outraged. I can't call out an idiotic statement without being outraged about it?

Right, Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin, A Philip Randolf et al were always just making a fuss about nothing. Always whining on about some thing that they call racism which doesn't exist and never affects anyone personally, well, it doesn't affect you personally which amounts to the same thing.

Who said racism doesn't exist? I feel no need to comment on your strawman.

Ha ha ha! This is pathetic special pleading. It is common enough for people to feel like they can opine on any subject from around the world and not have to actually live in the place they are talking about. Why is it that you can talk knowledgably about the domestic situations of various parts of the Middle East and yet think that others aren't allowed to express their own opinions on the United States? Why don't you show why I am wrong about something instead of acting petulant?

Do you think black people in the US were more subjugated in 1992 than at any time since 1865?

 

[WildCat]

Preach on brother man... tell them all about what it's really like to be a minority in the USA living under the Bigfoot-like hoax of non-existent racism.

To those of you who claim that racism is dead.

Keep building those strawmen guys!

I take it none of you want to back up the mindless claim that blacks were more subjugated in 1992 than at any time since slavery?

 

[RandFan]

Derrick Bell thought Louis Farrakhan was a great hero for the people.

He believed (or at least stated) ridiculous things, like:

Oh, and that science fiction story?

Sounds like another hero to the people.

And?

Yeah, and? Seriously who cares? Even IF these facts were shocking (shocking I tells ya) it would be guilt by association. Now, to be fair the thread title asks a question and you are trying to answer it. And perhaps these things could be argued to be what is wrong the man. I get that. But here is the thing, I think the question implies an unspoken condition, what is wrong with Derrick Bell that would make it shocking for Obama to have admired the man, right?

 

[WildCat]

Has anyone found that quote from '92? I would like to read it in context but I can't seem to find it.

It's from a book review, here: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/20/books/the-end-of-racism-and-other-fables.html?scp=1&sq=derrick

4th paragraph from the end.