An Interview with Derrick Bell: Reflections on Race, Crime, and Legal Activism

Abstract

Reflecting on his then forty years of advocacy and activism, lawyer-teacher-scholar Derrick Bell joined anthology co-editor Andrea McArdle for a wide-ranging conversation about race, crime, law, direct action, and a pedagogy for a new generation of lawyer-activists. He discusses police brutality in a broader economic and political context, keeping the focus on how police violence is connected to, and a symptom of, pernicious thinking about race that persists in political and social structures.

Keywords: public order, policing, police brutality, criminal law, criminal justice, race and the law, legal education, zero tolerance policing, quality of life policing, broken windows theory

JEL Classification: K14, K42