“As to the personal: I want to say quite clearly that I am a product of affirmative action. I am not stupid and I work hard and would likely have had a worthwhile career without affirmative action. But that career would almost certainly not have been as a law teacher and legal writer. I absolutely would not have become a full professor at the Harvard Law School. Without the Harvard imprimatur, my unorthodox writings filled with allegory exploring the depths of racism in the law and the society would likely not have been published and, if published, would not have been taken seriously.”

– Professor Derrick Bell, demonstrating clearly that while his ideas might have been poisonous his grasp on reality wasn’t completely nonexistent.