Rating: 
Summary: He got enough right that you need to read this book.
Review: Robinson's analysis of how past slavery has lead to blacks being in lower economic classes presently was very good. It's like running a 100 meter dash and everyone else but you starting on the 30 meter line. You get the point.Which leads to Robinson's conclusion that we(U.S.) need to have a comprehensive affimative action plan based on economic class, not race. He says his daughter did not need racial preferences, he could afford to send her to private schools. But there needs to be a way to get preschoolers from lower economic classes a headstart in our education system. Break the cycle. I found other parts of the book weird, like his chapters on Cuba and Castro. They didn't fit. Feel free to skip those.
Rating: 
Summary: My white German ancestor was an "Indentured Servant."
Review: My white German ancestor was an "Indentured Servant." Where is MY apology? Indentured servants worked side-by-side with the slaves. They got a raw deal, too. So where is my $$$? History has some hard and horrible moments, and should be preserved with honesty, and with an attitude of learning from it. I'm sorry that the African-American slaves suffered, and I'm sorry that MY ancestor was forced to be an indentured servant... But GET A CLUE!!! "The Debt" is not the answer.
Rating:
Summary: Nearly meritless
Review: The last time I had heard from Randall Robinson, he was starving himself to get Klinton to invade Haiti -- a very 90s twist on the "White Man's Burden." Please note the moral and practical problems with reparations: (1) Why should I pay reparations for something I didn't do? Isn't that like convicting a person for a crime he didn't commit? (2) Why should people not subject to slavery be compensated for it? If it's compensation just for people generally being mean to black Americans, then what makes them so special when people are mean to other people every day? (3) What necessary connection exists between my accidental (in the Aristotelian sense)membership in a group and my responsibility as a member of that group to repay a debt? I didn't ask to be part of the group. (4) Provisionally assuming some of Mr. Robinson's arguments, who will compensate me for the suffering and death of my five great-great-great-great uncles who died fighting for the Union? (5) Why should African-Americans be compensated before other ethnic groups, such as Native Americans? Also, remember that the word "slave" comes from "slav," the very white Europeans used as slaves during the Roman Empire. Are descendents of slavs due money from Italians? (6) Why should only African-Americans receive reparations? Why not Mexicans for the land grab the U.S. made after the Mexican-American War? (7) Aren't racial preferences in hiring and education reparations? Aren't welfare programs, food stamps, Medicaid, empowerment zones, the Community Reinvestment Act, Section 8a housing, targeted tax breaks for depressed areas, etc. etc. reparations? (8) How would monetary payment make black Americans' lives better, when the massive income transfer known as the "War on Poverty" and "Great Society" has not? (9) Why should black immigrants (e.g., Haiti, Jamaica), who willingly came to this country, be compensated? (10) Who is "black"? Who is "white"? Who decides? (11) Who is a descendant of slaves, and what percentage? What if someone is not a "pure" descendent of slaves? (12) Who is a descendent of slave owners, who would seem to be the most culpable group? Should they pay more? (13)Should blacks who are descendents of slaveholders be given anything? Should blacks be given a pro rata amount of reparations, correlative to the number and propinquity of any white anscestors and enslaved black anscestors? (14) If discrimination is continuing, and this discrimination deserves reparations, does that mean white Americans have an obligation to pay reparations indefinitely? (15) Most importantly, if blacks were to receive reparations, would it finally shut them up? Maybe I can get over nos. 1-14 above if the yammering would stop. On one hand, I relish the prospect of debate regarding reparations because it's not quite sufficiently stupid to immediately laugh off. That means otherwise rational people can actually believe in it, yet simultaneously make themselves an easy target for anyone with a bit of common sense. It's almost too easy. On the other hand, it's a shame to see the wasted effort of some African-Americans as well as guilty white liberals when they attempt to coherently express and rationally justify this emotional hodgepodge. As if African-American suffering were somehow unique or qualitatively different than the suffering of experienced by Native Americans, Chinese, Hispanics and others. Millions of people, of all races, suffer today, right now, in America, far more than the average black American. I understand the unadulterated pleasure of blaming others for one's problems, of the self-righteous indignation. Who among us has not felt, enjoyed, wallowed in these emotions as a child? These emotions wash away our troubles, eliminate the need for compromise, change, painful introspection, development, rejection of wrong principles. But eventually most of us grow out of it. We grow out of it because ultimately we're more interested in success than self-justification. We don't stay hooked on the narcotic of self-pity and rage. But what if, through some weird transmogrification of values, success itself came to be defined exclusively as one's victim status? What if the sense of pleasure in feeling oneself to be a victim, and the rage that accompanies it, were so strong that it actually caused the person to seek to continue these emotions at the cost of reason, wealth, education, social standing, family, society? What if the emotion was so powerful it actually caused the person to act in a way that assured his continued exclusion from society's mainstream? Before the Civil War, mostly well-meaning but paternalistic Northern whites started the "Back to Africa" movement, which attempted to ship American blacks back to Africa. At the same time, some argued that American blacks should be shipped to Haiti as a cheaper alternative. After the Civil War, the "40 Acres and a Mule" movement, the predecessor to today's reparations movement, enjoyed brief popularity in some quarters. In the 1920s, the Communist Internationale proposed an ethnic homeland for black Americans, based on counties containing the highest percentage of African-Americans. In the 1960s, Malcom X wanted to turn Idaho into a black enclave. The current Nation of Islam believes that a mad scientist created the white man, that white man is evil, and that he must eventually be destroyed. Zany and arrogant racial ideas come and go, depending on the political fads of the time. The recent resurrection of "reparations" is no different.
Rating:
Summary: Paternalism revisited
Review: This is the sort of book only an american could write. Robinson's politically correct ideas do nothing to help the progress of balck or african people: to pretend that America or the world owe us a sort of social reparation for our history is nothing but an elaborate form of paternalism. In fact, our progress should flow only from our merit and work at present days, not from a debt inherited from the past. I believe we can rise to the job and stop blaming others for our problems.
Rating:
Summary: Racism
Review: This book is objectionable, even reprehensible. A worse racist diatribe I have never encountered. He begins with a powerful introduction in which he discusses how the design and construction of the Capitol epitomizes the disenfranchisement of black Americans. From there he sinks into victimology in the opening paragraph of Chapter 1 and wallows in it for the rest of the book.
He succumbs to the need to redefine history. For example, in pages 18-19 he mentions a discussion on a "60 Minutes" program aired September 20, 1998, regarding possible successors to Pope John Paul II. That discussion included the possibility of a Nigerian (i.e., a black) Cardinal and what implications that might have for the Church. Then he points out CBS' failure to mention that there have been three Popes from Africa or of African descent: Saint Victor I (189-199), Saint Miltiades (311-314), and Saint Gelasius (492-496). His point is that back then Africans were considered equals. That's true. However, he fails to point out that none of them were black, either. They were of European Mediterranean stock.
He prattles on about all sorts of ills. He bemoans the general lack of knowledge about African history, especially among blacks. He slams Thomas Jefferson as a hypocrite, and then tackles George Washington. He criticizes our school system and our lack of involvement in Rwanda. It goes on and on.
There are kernels of merit in most of his arguments. However, they get painted over with his own brush of racism.
It's clear that he doesn't like America. (pg. 134.) He likes his wealth, constitutional rights, etc., but dislikes the feel of America. In other words, he dislikes whites.
When Robinson criticizes that we have in this country statues honoring Confederate heroes such as Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, two thoughts occur to me. First, we are a forgiving people. We forgave the Confederacy, and we forgave ourselves. Second, we respect people for the good or heroic things they did - their contributions. We also forgive failings, or at least we don't let them overshadow the great things. Examples abound, including Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his womanizing, and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and their slave owning. Robinson and others of his ilk should try forgiveness.
His demand for reparations is politically and rationally bankrupt. It is not deserved, nor could it be done fairly if we were to try. That a formal apology is in order is undeniable, but at the same time whites' roles in ending slavery should also be formally acknowledged.
In the end one must look to Robinson himself for the central argument against his diatribe. He is a graduate of Virginia Union University and Harvard Law School, lobbyist and political activist, published author (this is at least his second book), traveler, lecturer, and upper middle class at least. Despite his wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, he has prospered. Racism in this country is an obstacle he, like so many others, has overcome.
His book is well written editorially, cohesive, and has good presentation. It is also poisonously racist.
Robinson is clearly a very smart, passionate, erudite guy. Unfortunately, he is hopelessly wrong. He has become the very thing he despises. I hope there aren't too many like him out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Why is this so difficult to accept?
Review: I remember reading an excerpt of this book in a magazine a couple of years ago and I think that in spite of the minor inconsistancies in the book itself, the argument is well worth listening to. I commend him for his honesty. I find it almost amusing that some of the reviewers of this book are harping on his focus on the past. And, almost as if they were guilty, emphasizing the fact that they and their ancestors did not own slaves (hey, there is documentation of Blacks who owned slaves,too). His argument, and what I believe many African Americans are feeling, is that something MUST be done about what is happening to African American people TODAY. We can only understand the current injustices by examining the past. Society's acceptance of stereotypes of African Americans as less intellegent and more physically and rhythmically skilled were not shaped in present-day America. Over two hundred years of brainwashing has convinced us that there are physical and mental differences between the races whether we want to admit it or not. (If these differences were not issues, there would be nothing to get upset about) True, most whites did not own slaves. As a matter of fact, there was a time when poor whites and black slaves used to associate with one another. The Debt is a call to recognize that even though the races are equal in every way, Blacks have been systematically denied equal access to basic necessities. He argues that in American society, instead of people doing the right thing, people simply allowed Blacks to be trampled on so they could get ahead and put food on their own family's table. What Robinson is trying to say is that the US Government benefited from slavery. Tax dollars from the labor of displaced Africans were used to build this country. In that case, yes, the US Government must pay it back. During the era of Jim Crow, many QUALIFIED Blacks were denied jobs that were given to others because of the color of their skin--these "others" never once thought whether or not it was right or wrong to take that job from a qualified candidate. There were few non-Blacks who protested the treatment of this ethnic group unless it benefitted them in some way. (Why did people seem to accept Jim Crow after slavery?) It wasn't because they believed these people deserved equal rights. Still, Black people are being paid a fraction of what many Whites are paid for the same job. They pay more for bank loans if they want to purchase cars and houses. (Remember that program that showed the White man and the Black man as they were testing a variety of businesses for racial discrimination?) Yes, they deserve compensation for this, this is a PRESENT-DAY problem. It's almost scary that there are so many Americans who believe that Black people CHOOSE to live in poverty, CHOOSE to live in crime-ridden, drug-infested neighborhoods, CHOOSE not to find employment and CHOOSE to do nothing about it. If things were truly equal, do you really think Black people would complain about their current situation? It doesn't make sense to me.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Honest, Necessary.
Review: Randall Robinson reveals the truth of the extent to which racism has affected the lives of all people in the Americas. Focusing on the substanial loss (not just financial) that black people in the Americas have endured, Robinson makes an educated, factual argument for restitution.
Rating: 
Summary: The Debt: Classic Race Racketeering
Review: There is a comical saying in American law: if the law is against you, argue the facts; if the facts are against you, argue the law; and if both the facts and the law are against you, pound on the table furiously. Because neither the facts nor the law are on Robinson's side, he must exercise the final option of pounding furiously, which he does with great ferver in THE DEBT. So if you're looking for an extremely well written rant that swells with emotion, but that is utterly devoid of substance, then this book is for you. With writing talent reminiscent of Ernest Hemmingway [I will give credit where it's due], Robinson envisions the very racial hegemony for black America for which he condemns white America; in other words, he's not interested in equality for black America, but rather black hegemony, a world in which blacks are the superior and dominant racial caste, superior in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power to white underlings.
He takes a few pages to brag about himself and his family. He takes a few more pages to exonerate black Americans who have made poor choices, such as having children they can neither afford nor support, and then blaming racism and white America for their predicament. Of course, this is the protocal of the black nationalist fringe; i.e., blaming everyone else for black America's problems, except, of course, black America! As mentioned supra, Robinson is short on both facts and law to support his argument, and so he must concentrate on emotion. As a Harvard educated lawyer, I'm sure he knows there is no privity to sustain a claim for reparations; and further, if he's read Bittker's THE CASE FOR BLACK REPARATIONS, he knows that implementing a reparations program in America will only create a South African styled racial caste system and will undoubtedly exacerbate racial tensions in the country to the point of a race war (But consider that race racketeers like Robinson profit handsomely from racial disharmony, and so this situation would serve him well!).
In short, Robinson's case would not survive a motion for summary judgment! His case is hereby dismissed, with costs to be paid to those poor Americans, black and white, who can't afford Robinson's Harvard education, who can't afford to travel the world as Robinson and his wife have done, and who certainly cannot afford to send their children to private schools as Robinson has done! And Robinson complains about America?! Case dismissed!
Rating:
Summary: Right on the mark
Review: Like his first book, Definding the Spirit, Robinson's The Debt is a good read for the writing alone. Robinson's style and voice is passionate, literary, and activist-oriented. While Robinson is not a revolutionary Pan-Africanist like Kwame Nkrumah or Kwame Ture (Stockely Carmiacheal), he is nevertheless unapologically committed to self-determination of African peoples. His analysis of White capitalist partriarchy in the Americas and Africa is much needed during a time when Black empowerment and cultural alienation is at an all time high. While this book is about the debt that America owes to African people, it's really about agenda setting for African people--an agenda that calls for the self-determination of African peoples. For what we decide to do with the repaid dept--if it ever comes--is equally as important as the debt itself.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful reading
Review: Mr. Robinson, has done very extensive research in order to have discovered some of things he has written in his book. There are things in this book that show how the democratic party has taken advantage of the African-American vote, and how Bill Clinton really was not concerned with the African-American community. The book also explains how people may think reparations are an entitlement program such as welfare, but that is not the case. What I got from this book by Randall Robinson is that we need a stronger political agenda in the country in order to get the things we "need". One approach is to start electing politicians who are willing to put forth the issues of reparations for slavery, and if that politician in your area does not want to support our agenda "get them out of office".
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