Touring Derrick Bell’s Afrolantica, Part 5: Thomas Jefferson, A Symbol of American Racism
Part 1: A Guided Tour Through Derrick Bell’s Afrolantica Legacies
Part 2: A ‘Euphoria of Freedom’
Part 3: What Could it Mean to Be White?
Part 4: The Wages of Antisemitism
Before beginning our journey to Afrolantica, this dialogue opens the book:
Geneva Crenshaw is a fictional character created by Professor Derrick Bell. She appears in his previous writings as an idealized version of himself, expressing his opinions with greater vigor.
For Critical Race Theorists to make the case for American racism’s “permanence” they must annihilate the Founding Fathers’ reputations. If Thomas Jefferson and the other founders were so stupid that they could not see the common humanity of non-whites then why should anyone respect their political values and the legitimacy of our nation?
With this political theology embedded in one’s heart and mind, the emotional desire to “fundamentally transform” America arises:
RELATED: J. Christian Adams published a picture worth a thousand words on this subject.
Does anyone else find it creepy and manipulative that Bell would idealize himself as a female character? Just… eww.
He says throughout the book that he believes black women will be responsible for saving “our people.”
Bloody hell. If Thomas Jefferson did make a miraculous return visit, only with the ill fortune to have to start his orientation with this resentful toad, his most likely reaction to the news of the liberation and political equality of the former slave class would be the 18th-century equivalent of “Well, ALL RIGHT! And about damn time, too!”
Maybe he could bring Andrew Breitbart back with him… (sigh)…
I’ve just gotta say that ‘werewife’ is classic. Classic!
It explains SO MUCH.
What was that book by a black feminist, touted by Newsweek in the 90s, that said: “The Black Man should just go ahead and slap the Black Woman”- something about the necessity of helping him build up his self respect or self esteem or something.
Right about the same time as the ‘peaceful Sun People’ being invaded by the ‘militant Ice People’ book was making the rounds.
My favorite part of Afrolantica is how ‘facts are not persuasive enough, so Harvard’s Bell has adopted a new style of anecdote, allegory, and storytelling.
They just make it up- and then want to punish us for what they made up!