http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/bell.disc.html
Bell, D. (1987). And We Are Not Saved. New York: Basic Books (Prologue and Ch. 1: The Real Status of Blacks Today, pp. 51-74).
Questions:
- Who is Geneva Crenshaw? Provide a brief description.
Fictional Civil Rights thinker - What is the constitutional contradiction?
Equal — except for this one group
Property was the main object of society: Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - What was Geneva’s purpose for traveling back in time to the Constitutional Convention of 1787?
To get the people who wrote the constitution to think about what they were doing. - Why do you think Geneva was unsuccessful with her pleas to the various state representatives?
Nothing was changed, and we continue to perpetuate the constitution. - What is the overarching message of particular chronicle?
Whiteness is Property - What tenets of CRT emerge within this chronicle?
Racism is ahistoric
1. CRT recognizes that racism is endemic to American life.
2. CRT expresses skepticism toward dominant legal claims of neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy.
3. CRT challenges ahistoricism and insists on a contextual/historical analysis of the law … Critical race theorists … adopt a stance that presumes that racism has contributed to all contemporary manifestations of group advantage and disadvantage.
4. CRT insists on recognition of the experiential knowledge of people of color and our communities of origin in analyzing law and society.
5. CRT is interdisciplinary.
6. CRT works toward the end of eliminating racial oppression as part of the broader goal of ending all forms of oppression (p. 6).
(p. 261) - If you could go back and attempt to change any historical moment what would it be? Why? How would the change impact the status of race relations in America?