Derrick Bell’s Widow: Criticisms of Bell Are ‘An Outrage’
- Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:11pm by
Mytheos Holt
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Speak no ill of the dead? That appears to be the attitude of Harvard professor Derrick Bell’s widow, Janet Dewart Bell, who appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” to give her perspective on the man who Sarah Palin has denounced as a “racist” and who recently became the center of a firestorm of controversy thanks to Breitbart.com. You can watch the clip of her appearance below:
Mediaite gives a semi-sympathetic overview of the appearance:
To her credit, though, Ms. Dewart Bell also saw an opportunity in the glare of attention. “I’m smiling because I want to lift up the memory of Derrick Bell,” she daid. “Derrick Bell left a great legacy, not just to me and our family, but my husband was — if he were here today, he would be standing up forSandra Fluke. You know, Gloria Steinem once named him an honorary woman, because he was a feminist before feminism was cool.”
“That is the Derrick Bell that I know,” she continued, the freshness of her loss (Prof. Bell died in October) evident in her choice of tenses. “He’s a man of courage, of conviction. And he was always standing up for justice. It didn’t matter who it was. He accepted people as they were.”
Of Sarah Palin’s attack, Ms. Dewart Bell said ” It’s outrageous. It’s an outrage,” adding that while this thing is to be expected from the ranks of right-wing provocateurs like Palin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly, she asked “Where are the good people who are going to speak up on the right side, you know? There should be some moderate right people or moderate Republicans who speak up and say, ‘This is not right.’”
To Dewart Bell’s credit, she does not appear to have held the same inflammatory views as her late husband, at least with respect to her personal life. Prior to her marriage to Bell, she caused a stir among black radicals by deciding to marry a white man, Bob Dewart, as chronicled in the book Struggle for a Better South. What caused her to change and marry such a consummate believer in the permanence of racism, when she herself defied the phenomenon, can only be guessed.
For economist Thomas Sowell’s Thoughts on Derrick Bell, click here.
For more information on Bell’s ties to the Obama White House, click here.
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Comments (51)
Tandem2011
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 5:17amGloria Steinem and Sandra Fluke are operatives for the far left.
Report Post »huufarted
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 3:48pmSomeone tell this Rat Faced Hag that Bell cant ROT fast enough for most people and the world is a far better place with his racist azz dead !
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 12:17amOh boo hoo… .hubby was a radical, racist commie…. deal with it!
Report Post »TSUNAMI-22
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 2:45amI concur. He was a racist as well.
Report Post »Tandem2011
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 5:11amWe don’t care what she has to say. She’s expected to defend her husband, good or bad. And he was bad.
Report Post »EP46
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 6:20amAt least Bell got to visit the obama White House twice….Fluke only got a phone call !
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:44pmReally great job, Mytheos Holt!
Fantastic article.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:41pmEven Adolph Hitler… had a Lover!
Report Post »spirited
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:37pmThe Big Hoax
By Thomas Sowell
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There have been many frauds of historic proportions — for example, the financial pyramid scheme for which Charles Ponzi was sent to prison in the 1920s, and for which Franklin D. Roosevelt was praised in the 1930s, when he called it Social Security. In our own times, Bernie Madoff’s hoax has made headlines.
But the biggest hoax of the past two generations is still going strong — namely, the hoax that statistical differences in outcomes for different groups are due to the way other people treat those groups.
The latest example of this hoax is the joint crusade of the Department of Education and the Department of Justice against schools that discipline black males more often than other students. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, this disparity in punishment violates the “promise” of “equity.”
Just who made this promise remains unclear, and why equity should mean equal outcomes despite differences in behavior is even more unclear. This crusade by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is only the latest in a long line of fraudulent arguments based on statistics.
If black males get punished more often than Asian American females, does that mean that it is somebody else’s fault? That it is impossible that black males are behaving differently from Asian American females? Nobody in his right mind believes
Report Post »spirited
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:36pmAmong the many serious problems of ghetto schools is the legal difficulty of getting rid of disruptive hoodlums, a mere handful of whom can be enough to destroy the education of a far larger number of other black students — and with it destroy their chances for a better life.
Judges have already imposed too many legalistic procedures on schools that are more appropriate for a courtroom. “Due process” rules that are essential for courts can readily become “undue process” in a school setting, when letting clowns and thugs run amok, while legalistic procedures to suspend or expel them drag on. It is a formula for educational and social disaster.
Now Secretary Duncan and Attorney General Holder want to play the race card in an election year, at the expense of the education of black students. Make no mistake about it, the black students who go to school to get an education are the main victims of the classroom disrupters whom Duncan and Holder are trying to protect.
What they are more fundamentally trying to protect are the black votes which are essential for Democrats. For that, blacks must be constantly depicted as under siege from whites, so that Democrats can be seen as their rescuers.
Report Post »spirited
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:35pmPromoting paranoia translates into votes. It is a very cynical political game, despite all the lofty rhetoric used to disguise it.
Whether the current generation of black students get a decent education is infinitely more important than whether the current generation of Democratic politicians hang on to their jobs.
Too many of the intelligentsia — both black and white — jump on the statistical bandwagon, and see statistical differences as proof of maltreatment, not only in schools but in jobs, in mortgage lending and in many other things.
Some act as if their role is to protect the image of blacks by blaming their problems on whites. But the truth is far more important than racial image.
Wherever we want to go, we can only get there from where we are. Not where we think we are, or wish we are, or where we want others to think we are, but where we are in fact right now.
But political spin and pious euphemisms don’t tell us where we are. After a while, such rhetorical exercises don’t even fool others.
If we don’t have the truth, we don’t have anything to start with and build on. A big start toward the truth would be getting rid of the kinds of statistical hoaxes being promoted by Secretary of Education Duncan and Attorney General Holder. ~Thomas Sowell
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:42pmMy mommy told me if I couldn’t say something nice about someone who died, say nothing at all.
I have nothing to say.
Report Post »djp70124
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:39pmRemember “The content of the man, not the colour of his skin”- MLK (Republician)
Report Post »in vino veritas
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:29pmAnother hard hitting investigative interview by Ed !
Report Post »Kylestarr
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:02pm‘Speak no ill of the dead?’
Hypocrites!
What about Andrew Breitbart!!!!!
Report Post »RayOne
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:38pmConsistent if nothing else.
Report Post »May He and Mr. Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P. both lived as they believed. We have a WH that was selected by Nancy and Reid.
pamela kay
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 12:26amKYLESTARR; Bingo! Good comment!
Report Post »SpeckledPup
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:43pmnot too hard to remember what the Left said about our recently departed warrior, Andrew Breitbart.
that bell woman can take her husband’s communist black liberation ..and choke on it.
Report Post »encinom
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:01pmBrietbart legacy is one of lies and racism. His final video is a joke, like him.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:41pmIn your wet dreams Encinom.
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:49pm@COFEMALE
You give Encinom too much credit.
Report Post »skiz
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 8:04am@ENCINOM~ notice how nobody acknowledges you anymore! That must tell you something about your totally stupid comments. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! You racist!
Report Post »angelite49
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:37pm[S]he asked “Where are the good people who are going to speak up on the right side, you know? There should be some moderate right people or moderate Republicans who speak up and say, ‘This is not right.’”
Could Mrs. Breitbart ask as much of the Left or the Democrats? (Hint: No one would even hear her.)
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:42pmThey are probably waiting for the left to stand up and condemn their buddies for slamming Palin, Malken, and all the other right women. It’s alright for the left to do it and nothing is said. But let the Right do it and the left is all over it to condemn it.
Report Post »Bwbarrnone
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:35pmProgressives are starting to sound like “whites from the ‘40’s” Their Justifications of their life style is just so wrong. I think its time as a “second class citizen” (Conservative) to start demanding our rights.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:34pmWhom the bell tolls it tolls for he.
Listen all you *******, honky, white trash, redneck, racist people. Give it a rest and get off my lawn. Black power. Kill da babies. Signed, Mrs Bell.
Report Post »1947
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:37pmDo you speak for BELL…..?
Report Post »1947
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:40pmAre you Mrs Bell >>>>>?
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 11:40pm1947, am I your Huckleberry?
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:32pmI was so forecasting this story as soon as it was reported that he was dead!!! Yeah don’t tell the truth about this “great man” because he is dead……Bringing out the “grieving” widow is a bonus touch too!! This is why the liberals are infesting our Beloved Country like a virus!! They operate in the emotional realm of fantasy and since the only way to ground them is by spouting the truth they can re-direct in any emotional doctrine to counter it….IF your emotions dictate your actions YOU ARE WRONG!!!
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:31pmI stick up for my husband no matter what idiot things he may say because he is my partner so I respect that. Nobody wants their deceased husband trashed but not many marry racist nuts either who spend their days indoctrinating unsuspecting college students with doctrines of division and hate.
Report Post »EP46
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 6:23amHillary stood by her man too !
Report Post »angelcat
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:28pmIt‘s an outrage that the man’s own words have been used to determine his ideas? I don’t think so!
Report Post »GoingBeck
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:27pmHow tiresome it is becoming to have blacks object to their ideas being criticized just because, they think, they are black. A bad idea is a bad idea, I don’t care what color you are.
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:27pmLiberals have never been great with critical thinking, again, the irony….
Report Post »burnbabylon
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 10:55pmThey are , however, experts at critical theory. It beats having to defend their garbage.
Report Post »Alan
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:26pmA man who made his living from racially insulting his country and most of the people in it, cannot receive criticism in return? Not only did Bell throughout his life exempt himself from charges of racism, obviously he and his are also exempted from charges of hypocrisy.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:26pmWhat a sour note this Derrick “BELL” curve , has left as his legacy. And this sourpuss wife of his is just another Race Pimpette. And when is being emasculated by Gloria Steinem a resume enhancer??
Report Post »vinnymac46
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:26pmMust be strapped for cash…
Report Post »marybethelizabeth
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:23pmA firestorm, young Mr. Holt?
More like the heat from an extinguished safety match.
Ho hum….. yawn
Report Post »marcus_arealius
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:15pmWhat does this Bell racist have in common with Ted Kennedy? They’re both DEAD!
Is there anything I can do for you Mrs. Bell to aggravate the crap out of you? Let me know by flapping your gums in the press.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:30pmGee .. if they hadn’t “hidden” this information .. we could have had this OUT in 2008.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:30pmWelcome to the Blaze! Your ignorance and right-wing hatred will fit right in here! But you have to use “marxist” more.
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on March 13, 2012 at 9:43pmSheepy
Report Post »And most people say that libs are ascerbic whiners; you are so accomodating and like a breath of fresh… Yeh any way. Where is your particular place in Black Lib Theology and did the critical stuff hurt your psyche thing?