Harvard Law Professor Derrick Bell’s widow on Monday spoke on her late husband’s behalf after his name was brought back into the headlines.
Fox News’ Sean Hannity pegged a clip of President Obama as a law student hugging Bell as an “exclusive” after the late Andrew Breitbart promised that the video would be the “vetting” Obama never received as a candidate. The video stirred up none of the controversy that pundits promised.
In an interview with MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” Janet Dewart Bell said she is “angry and sad” that commentators on the right have been dishonest about her husband. “… it’s just really part of that radical right wing and the right wing media’s patterns of distortion and misinformation,” she added.
The host, Ed Schultz, asked Bell to respond to Sarah Palin’s charge that her husband was a “racist.” It’s “outrageous” and an “outrage,” Bell responded. “Where are the good people who are going to speak up on the right side, you know?”
Bell went on to speak about how her husband was a “patriot” and a war veteran who never said he “didn’t like white people very much.” Many of the professor’s students — from all backgrounds — asked Bell to officiate their weddings, she said.
“Everybody should get a shot at the American dream. That is what Derrick Bell was about,” the professor’s widow added.
Watch the interview:
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David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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