And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice

The author of Faces at the Bottom of the Well and “the man behind critical race theory” ( New Yorker ) offers an imaginative investigation of American race relations and the difficult struggle for racial justice. In And We Are Not Saved , legal scholar and civil rights activist Derrick Bell calls for a deeper understanding of how white supremacy functions in the United States. Bell challenges the idea that significant social, political, and economic progress was achieved by the civil rights movement in the wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board decision. Through a series of fables and dramatic dialogues modeled on the grim fairytales of the eighteenth century, Bell explains the true pervasiveness of racial oppression within the American legal system. Racial inequality, he argues, is an integral part of American law and society, and it cannot be easily reversed through legislation. Hailed as “fascinating” ( New York Times Book Review ) and “daring” ( Washington Post ), this is a landmark work in the study of race in America.