Afrolantica Legacies. - book reviews

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 6, 1998 by D. Kamili Anderson

Like the mythic lost nation chronicled in the title and opening chapter, this book offers much in the way of promise. It, after all, was writ ten by one of the foremost critical legal scholars and academic activists of this era, New York-cum-Harvard University's Derrick Bell.

Yet, in much the same way that the nirvanic island "Afrolantica" eludes the African American expatriates who pursue it, Afrolantica Legacies sinks heavily, anchored by the weight of heavy dogma. After a few intriguing segments, the book plunges headlong into the depths of an all-too-familiar diatribe -- ebbing and falling not on its intent, which is admirable, but on its tendency to rehash.

Although Afrolantica Legacies is classic Derrick Bell, it is not until the very end of the book -- indeed, in the "Acknowledgments" following the endnotes and index -- that readers realize the not-so-awful truth: this book is not a new birth; rather, it is a rebirthing. Bell reverberates foundational progressive doctrines to the point (almost) of ennui. The book thus emerges not as a phoenix-like revelation, but as a vulturization of previously presented themes and theories.

There is still much to be heralded here, but perhaps only by novice readers. For more knowledgeable readers, little is novel about Afrolantica Legacies despite Bell's frequent attempts to mix fiction with fact and the real with the surreal. The result is a strange oil-and-vinegar blend of quasi- and authentic legal and social criticism that is often less than profound or valuable to those who already "get it."

This book is lost on those who are already aware of the phenomenal losses Bell describes that have accompanied the equally phenomenal gains African Americans and other people of color have made since the 1950s. It is lost as well on those who, like Bell, steadfastly-maintain and do not need a degree in rocket science to conclude that racism may well be a permanent part of the American scene. In short, nothing is new under the sun in Afrolantica.

Readers are reintroduced to Geneva Crenshaw, Bell's Black feminist/womanist alter ego, whose superhuman powers of intuition and intellect include (wow!) the ability to put words in the mouth of an American president (whose name I won't reveal but whose initials are "Bill Clinton").

He also recapitulates yet another -- and because of that, perhaps less than provocative -- parable of race relations featuring the colored, domineering inhabitants of the Citadel and their ivory-hued Lowlander serfs. This conflict originated in Bell's 1994 Confronting Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protestor.

Readers also learn from the back pages of Afrolantica Legacies of Bell's fictive encounter with Black aliens from outer space in the chapter "Chrara's Enlightenment," and of his efforts to link the themes of the legend of Blackbeard to Black American realities -- which originated in his previous law review articles.

Bell also continues -- by overemphasis, if not by innovation -- to offer harsh indictments of the American legal system and critics of the Civil Rights movement in his contrived presentation of a conversation about affirmative action and what-not with a stereotypically "crazy" Black indigent and a Jewish academic.

And what of the legacies themselves? Bell reveals post hoc that these ideas were first percolated in an earlier text -- his 1992 offering, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. The legacies confirm Bell's penchant for lists. In other writings, he has offered his "Rules of Racial Standing" -- five deftly worded truths-most-evident that speak to the realities of Black Americans' encounters with the U.S. legal/justice system. The legacies are simply more of the same -- Black political homilies which are resounding but not astounding; true, but not terrifically so.

As the first Black man to receive tenure at Harvard, Bell protested that elite institution's hiring policies -- specifically, its failure to hire a Black woman law professor -- and was fired for his pains in 1992. For these actions and commitments, he is to be admired and his offerings of wisdom certainly welcomed. But Afrolantica Legacies missed the mark for those seeking to go farther.

The book does fill an important niche, however. It is perhaps best served up as a required or supplemental text for high schoolers and early college-going young folk whose budding political activism astute professors or others might wish to steer in the direction of race relations. From Derrick Bell's example and offerings, in this and other works, emanates an abundance of depth and reasoning. Plus, his erudite voice cries forth in the wilderness with footnotes and full documentation! Black, White, and other evolving intellectual spirits can emulate or draw force from his ideas and from there, perhaps forge a resonant voice of their own.

Thus, all is not lost in the lost world after all. Atlantis, Afrolantica -- for some, the voyage will be well worth the trip.

D. Kamili Anderson is the associate editor of the Journal of Negro Education, a co-editor of the Encyclopedia of African-American Education, and a former staff writer for Black Issues In Higher Education.