HOW FAR WE HAVE TO GO: by Derrick Bell

BOOK REVIEW HOW FAR WE HAVE TO GO And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice. By Derrick Bell. New York: Basic. Pp. 288. $19.95. Bryan Fair* Imagine an America without a legacy of slavery and racism. Imagine an America where no group is subordinate to another; an America where the incorporating principles of equality and equal treatment under the laws actu- ally apply to all Americans. Can you imagine an America where we live in multi-ethnic communities and attend multi-ethnic churches and schools? This is not the America in which we live, nor is it the America of our past experience. Americans live by race and Americans live by class. Increasingly, our daily affairs are ordered and restricted by race and class. Our homes, workplaces, schools, social clubs and churches all reflect the historical racial injustice which is our common American experience. In our America, most of us are measured by color, rather than character or contribution. But it is not simply White against Black or Black against Latino; it is also poor Black against middle-class Black, and poor White against some other middle-class White ethnic group. In our America, class stratification, along with racism appears to increase by the moment. As a result of America's legacy of slavery and racism, in our America racial and economic injustice are facts of life for ourselves and our posterity. In his recent book, entitled And We Are Not Saved, 1 Derrick Bell, Profes- sor of Law at the Harvard Law School and former Dean at the University of Oregon at Eugene, School of Law, discusses the efforts of various Americans, Black and non-Black, who have sought to achieve racial and economic justice for Black Americans. In addition, Bell critiques the recent efforts of civil rights advocates in light of current Supreme Court rulings. Professor Bell is more than simply a legal scholar regarding complex ra- cial issues. In this book, he demonstrates his mastery of American history from the colonial period through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Recon- struction and Populism, the Civil Rights Movement to the present. His effec- tive use of creative writing to discuss ever-important racial issues is brilliant. Mr. Fair is currently a Lecturer in Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. J.D. Univ. of Calif. Los Angeles 1985; B.A. Duke University 1982. He is a member of the California Bar. The author has institutionally employed the upper case when using the terms Whites and Blacks. In the author's judgment racial equality requires that we use proper nouns to designate racial groups, including Whites, Blacks, Asian-Americans, Latinos and Native Ameri- cans. In light of American history and the subordination of one race by another, it seems important to use such labels consistently. 1. D. BELL, AND WE*ARE NOT SAVED: THE ELUSIVE QUEST FOR RACIAL JUSTICE The book's Introduction summarizes the intended scope of the book.