The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks

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Summary: Randall Robinson Is Taking The Wrong Road Towards Redemption
Review: Randall Robinson has written a book that inadvertently causes more harm than good. The gentleman's central argument may succeed in an abstract college debate atmosphere, but it still leaves something to be desired in the world of diverse human beings enduring their own just grievances. It has the practical relevance similar to a debate forum choosing the question whether the English language should dominate our laws and culture. Regardless of who wins the debate, English will not be replaced anytime in the near future.

Afro-Americans indeed do have much to be angry about concerning their unjust predicament. Nevertheless, Robinson's encouragement for blacks to wallow in an attitude of "they owe me" accomplishes little. Furthermore, it eviscerates the Afro-American individual who has bought into this mindset both psychologically and spiritually. Do black people truly want to perceive themselves as victims? The universe is not always fair, and ultimate justice is only promised in the next world. In this vale of tears, a pragmatic approach is often the best and only way to overcome past wrongs, and seek current solutions to the difficulties of poverty and discrimination. Robinson compares the Afro-American situation to that of the allies after World War I, and the Jews after World II. Unfortunately, this half true analogy overlooks the nebulousness of deciding which American caucasians directly owe their fellow black citizens. I am a white man and thus Robinson may take what I say with a hugh grain of salt. Nevertheless, I dare suggest that Robinson look to his Asian-American brothers and sisters for guidance on this matter. The tacit consensus attitude of these Americans of Oriental descent who have suffered similar mistreatment is exactly the opposite of Mr. Robinson. They have realized that the here and now is all we really have. Living in the past is simply wasting valuable time and energy. The goal of equal treatment is diligently pursued, but the possession of an ardent work ethic and the striving for educational betterment is deemed of at least equal importance. The result is that the Asian American populace rates high in economic wherewithal and social standing. I consider Randall Robinson a very decent and honorable man, but I cannot recommend this book. Do I seem unduly harsh towards Mr. Robinson? I recommend the reader also takes a look at my blistering Amazon community criticism of Charles Murray's "The Bell Curve." Discussions of these awkward issues deserve brutal honesty and forthrightness. I owe Mr. Robinson the respect that he can handle the truth. It would be contemptuous of me to treat him as something akin to a child.

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Summary: Racism is ALIVE and Well! ([e-mail])
Review: I have read many of the reader reviews on this book. Many of these reviews sadden my heart. It is obvious that Racism is Alive and Well tonight...Lincoln himself said, "thank God for the Black man's labor for our country would be not without him."

Many of the reviews compare the Jews too the plight of black slavery... I must ask, how does one compare seven years of horrific brutality to 265 years of brutality. You simple can't compare the two. It breaks my heart that 16 million jews and other groups where murdered. But, an estimated 100 million blacks where killed, enslaved, and denied of basic human rights. 100 MILLION!

This book left me with one pressing, thought-provoking question, that is, "Why is the world so amenable to offering reparations to so many other ethnic groups but not black people?" Hmmm...

It is a book made to be read by those and only those who want the truth. I understand that many will be unable to even comprehend the magnitude of this situation...and they will express themselves in anger, ignorance and harsh words. "If one doesn't know oneself they cannot see their own humanity, and without this knowledge, compassion is impossible." ari

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Summary: "still so much hate"
Review: The Debt is a well written book. But did not tell of all the horrors slavery has done to black people. 1000 books full of information can not begin to tell why we are where we are today.As I sit here and remember my grandmother and my father. I know what they went through to get us where we are today and it wasnt easy. I was only a little girl but as I look back I can see White people really thought of us as something different, and that has change very little. We didnt get where we are by getting hand outs or pity from white America. MY FATHER, MY GRANDMOTHER, MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER AND GREAT GRANDFATHER AND SO ON, FOUGHT AND DIED FOR EVERYTHING WE HAVE ACHIEVED. BY GOING UP TO CLEAN OLD MASSER'S HOUSE FOR A DOLLAR A WEEK,AND FEEDING LORD KNOWS HOW MANY CHILDREN (NEIGHBORS, COUSINS, AUNTS, UNCLES) WITH IT. Thatreally showed me we are some of the best survivors in the world, my grand mother could feed 10 people on one chicken with corn, potatoes, bread and we would all get full. "THAT'S A MIRACLE" BY THE WAY OLD MASSER IS MY GREAT GRANDFATHER. "I,M SURE NOT BY CHOICE". There are millions of blacks that have white ties, and though a few may have been consentual a large majority were not. But don't worry by the year 2020 you wont know who's black, who's white, who's german or jewish cause you see when the white man mixed the races over 400 years he didn't think we would have millions of multicultural people. All he was thinking about was gettin his jollies. So you see Mr. "we wont win a race war" (what war) and Ms.he's like hitler'(Hitler tryed to destroy a race , Randall is trying to save one) We are getting on with our lives, we are gaining ground, we are better educated AND LEARNING HOW TO LOVE AND RESPECT EACH OTHER AGAIN. But we are doing all this not because of simpathy,hands outs or what ever other reason you may want to conjure up, but because my kinpeople fought for it, we earned it, and we deserve it! If you dont believe in the power of GOD, you better start,because he is surely real, and created ALL MEN EQUAL, AND UNTIL YOU ALL REALIZE THAT YOU WILL BE THE ONLY ONE LIVING IN THE PAST. "GOD LOVES EVERYONE" let me repeat this "GOD LOVES EVERYONE." WE WERE ALL PUT HERE TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH EACH OTHER, but It always has to be that type that wants to rule the world, and they are the ones I really feel sorry for, because they think the power really comes from them( so arogant) but It is from the evil one and they dont know that after satan uses them up he will disguard them like a piece of trash! You can listen to every subbliminal message in the world that tells you Blacks haven't been wronged by the SLAVERY AND ITS lasting effects , still you won't be convinced.IF THE PROMISE was kept we wouldnt be talking about this right now. Thats why people are so angry AND FULL OF HATE the truth hurts. I work with racist, ignorant people every day that would rather stick their hand in cow chips rather than touch a h minority's hand or hold a decent conversation with one, but that dont get to me any more, because I know who I am, and that GOD guides my path, and if they dont have my best intrest at heart he will remove them. I'm in favor of all positive things for blacks and minorities because its been a long time comming "what goes around comes around" and its our turn. I would only stress this message to all that GOD blesses. Dont get caught up in worldy things, give, give ,give. When you get the nice cars, homes,lots of money, dont forget about the struggle you went through to get it. Most of all dont hate each other and dont hate them we have been pitted aganist each other for too long, made to fight each other, distrust each other its time to HEAL, SET YOUR OWN TREND. LOVE FOR YOUR FELLOW MAN WILL ONLY BRING YOU HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS, SO START WHERE IT IS WORSE IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY. If you want what another man has you will become "just like him" selfish, and greedy and will hate anyone who comes close to having what you have. Keep writing Randall thats how we have won so many battles, FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

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Summary: specious and divisive
Review: I read this book after coming across the title at amazon and became quite intrigued by the premise so I picked up the book from the library and began to read. Very quickly I became very skeptical and eventually incredulous about the arguments put fourth in this book. For example, I personally am an all American mutt and don't even know most of my lineage but I certainly don't consider myself in either the "white" or the "black" camps or anything else that specific. I suppose that my skin color is tan but a few shades lighter than milk chocolate so I suppose that I might be considered a tan white or a light black with straight dark hair or an Arab or Hispanic whatever. I know that I have one grandmother that was black and my father is Lebanese American. The rest of my family might be "white" but I really don't know or care and I honestly hadn't given it much thought before reading this book. While reading this book, I thought to myself, does the fact that I have a black grandmother entitle me to 1/4 debt from my guilt ridden "white self" to my poor oppressed "black self"? Also, along these same personal lines, my brother-in-law is black, or at least he looks one hundred percent black, and my sister is 1/4 black like me. Does this mean that their daughter (my niece) is 1/4 black + 1/2 black = 3/4 black which would mean then that the guilt ridden white 1/4 of herself owes the poor oppressed 3/4 of herself? This argument is specious no matter how oppressed Africans were by a minority of rich Southern whites who are all long dead because no person can owe a debt to a another that s/he has never in any way committed an injustice. The masters and slaves are all dead and we don't even know who the masters descendants are (It is a historical fact that slave owners in the ante-bellum south were a tiny minority of the white population). About my score, I gave the book 3 stars because the writing is quite good = 5 stars but then I totally disagree with the premise of this book = -2 stars. Only -2 stars since it is only my difference of opinion that makes me critical of this book. Perhaps if I could only change the percentages of color within myself I might better understand the author's argument and feel more entitled or more obligated concerning this "debt".

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Summary: The reaction of some reviewers is a good bell weather
Review: Randall Robinson has performed a service in writing this book. Unfortunately some of the readers who have reviewed this book negatively inadvertently reveal precisely why the racial problem remains what it is. Implicit in what they say is the notion that something has been given to Afro-Americans as though they are an alien presence who demonstrate nothing but laziness and a lack of gratitude for what has been "done" for them.

Missing from the analyses of the reviewers who insist on remaining blind is any sense of the common connection they have with Afro-Americans. The fact that not only are they due reparations for the hundreds of years of free labor their ancestors provided, but because of the inheritance they missed out on from slaveowning fathers who habitually enaged in sexual relations with their slave women. As Frederick Law Olmsted made clear in his landmark book "Cotton Kingdom," the vast majority of Southern Caucasian men engaged in such relations to the point where most Afro-Americans share a common European ancestry with Caucasians. While some of the offspring of these unions did inherit some property (usually much less than their Caucasian half-sisters and brothers), most did not, meaning that a whole lot of "illegitimate" children were disinherited (by their deadbeat Caucasian fathers all forgotten by history as well as conservatives such as the editorialists at the Wall Street Journal who, by contrast, love to harp on the behavior of irresponsible Afro-American male fathers).

Add to that the other portion of the reality that most Americans refuse to face: the fact that 40% of Afro-Americans also have Native American blood due to unions between slaves and Creek, Cherokee and Seminole Native Americans in the South. Most Americans remain blind to the fact that the sole subgroup in American culture disinherited from all other aspects of their ancestry by virtue of the fact that they have black African blood, are Afro-Americans. Therein lies the true tragedy of this culture and the refusal of so many Americans to see the value of Robinson's argument.

Every subgroup in American culture with whom Afro-Americans are inappropriately compared has the luxury of knowing that in this society they can work hard and move up in status because there is one subgroup whom they will always be considered better than: Afro-Americans. Hence the blind attitude prevalent among those who see themselves as white (and the "nonwhites" without black African blood eager to assimilate) that no matter how much an individual Afro-American achieves, he or she is still answerable for the social and intellectual defects of those who have no incentive to achieve anything at all.

Hand in hand with this attitude is the blindness that claims that affirmative action has done a tremendous amount for Afro-Americans, when all it has achieved is to allow many Afro-Americans into well-paying window dressing positions. When it comes to who exercises the power in our culture it has made little dent at all. Of course there are the Oprah Winfreys and the Michael Jordans. But they are the exceptions. No one could ever say that 12% of the Forbes 400 are Afro-American, or 12% of the owners of major newspapers or T.V. stations, or 12% of the law partners or partners in investment banking.

And when ever the issue of Afro-American deficiency in these ranks is raised, suddenly those who wish to remain blind reason that the deficiency exists because of Afro-American incompetence. Rarely are they willing to discuss the obvious incompetence of the George Bush Jr.'s of the world, or the Dan Quayles, or the Ronald Reagans who clearly didn't get where they are due to brainpower but rather because of their race and gender.

Robinson's book is well-researched and well-written. The pity is that so many Americans who need to read it won't, while most of those who do read it are already the converted. Will we Afro-Americans ever receive reparations? Probably not. However, as I concluded long ago with my own life, the fact that your enemies are many and quite powerful is no argument against fighting them anyway. One has to be able to live with himself and at least tell his chidren that at least he put up the good fight, then pass the torch along to them. For some of us, to do anything less would amount to losing all of our sense of self-esteem in order to perhaps gain some of the world, yet turn into hollow shells of real men and women.

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Summary: An irresponsible and disturbing book
Review: Randall Robinson has written an irresponsible and disturbing book.

Briefly, his argument is that Americans -- and whites in particular -- owe blacks for centuries of slavery and oppression. The present troubled state of the black community is the legacy of this shameful treatment. This claim is nothing that most of us haven't heard before.

But is Robinson right? Not quite. His idea that nothing has been done for black Americans has little basis in fact. Black Americans enjoy a measure of economic prosperity, opportunity and health standards far surpassing those of other people of African descent anywhere else in the world. Blacks dominate the music, entertainment, and sports industries. Schools and universities have turned themselves inside out to accommodate black supremacist demands and Afrocentric curricula. The English language (as spoken in America) has been expunged of all words and phrases that may hold even the most obscurely negative meaning for blacks. Historical sites, books and symbols that are deemed offensive to blacks have disappeared from the landscape. In recent decades billions of dollars have been spent on welfare and affirmative action programs to lift blacks out of poverty. White Americans show a tolerance towards black supremacists and anti-Semites that would never be shown to white supremacists. Each year black race-hucksters like Jesse Jackson regularly shake down corporate America for billions of dollars. And so on...

Yet Robinson thinks this just isn't good enough. Of course, a reasonable person would say that more than enough has been done for blacks. But Robinson would rather blame white people and hold out his hand for more.

Robinson glosses over the possibility that blacks themselves are to blame for their current plight. If the black community is in trouble, perhaps it is a result of the behavior of blacks themselves? If some young black men (and increasingly women) would rather join gangs, listen to violent rap music, and take drugs than stay in school, then that is their fault -- not America's. After all that has been done for blacks, you would think that even a fairly intelligent man like Robinson would recognize that maybe the problem is with the black community. But he doesn't want to consider this.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this work is Robinson's discussion of violence. Only a race war may alert Americans to the crisis in the black community, he argues. It's a topic that has been broached by other black leaders in recent years, most notably Carl Rowan and Louis Farrakhan. I'm surprised -- and disappointed -- that Robinson joins them. Encouraging his fellow blacks to start a race war is highly irresponsible: it is a war that black Americans would surely lose.

Americans are quickly losing patience with the excuses, threats and demands of African-Americans like Robinson. This book will do nothing to change their minds. For an insight into the radical agenda of one of this country's most respected black leaders, and a possible explanation of why race relations are worsening rapidly, this book is valuable. But for anyone seeking a sober look at where we are headed and what we can do about it, this book is pure poison.

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Summary: THOUGHT PROVOKING - A MUST READ!
Review: Randall Robinson does an excellent job of outlining his message of how the institution of slavery has greatly impacted African-Americans and the huge, ugly scars that remain today, both in America and internationally, as a result of this atrocity. When you consider that equal opportunity (if you can call it that) has only become available to African-Americans just one generation ago, you understand why poverty, poor health, illiteracy...are disproportionately endemic to much of this community.

He offers valid, reasonable solutions to ameliorate the plight of African-Americans - not just monetary handouts, but a useful plan for reparations that includes funding for education.

This book left me with one pressing, thought-provoking question, that is, "Why is the world so amenable to offering reparations to so many other ethnic groups but not black people?" Hmmm...

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Summary: A look at what the U.S. has not done for those it has used
Review: "The Debt", in short, was a critical look at the result of slavery and legal racial intolerance in the US. It gave an in-depth legal look at the reperations paid to other ethnic or religious groups subjugated by their goverments, and why reperations were not paid to African Americans. It charges the U.S. to look at the color problem in this country and move to solve it by first not ignoring the still current effects of slavery. It is a book made to be read by those and only those who want the truth.

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Summary: Right on The Money
Review: Mr. Robinson's book is right on the money in making the case for The Debt....What America Owes To Blacks. He coverage of the what slavery and its aftermath have done and is still doing to African Americans is very true. His book is an excellent starting point for anyone desiring to learn more about reparations and what the term means to Randall Robinson. This book should be read by all Americans who sincerely would like to resolve the nation's racial difficulties.

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Summary: A deeper Look at the Debt
Review: This book starts out like dynamite but sags toward the end. The reader is left hanging over the amount of the debt and what to do about it. The stories that are intertwined in the book are engaging, thought provoking and are indeed unique and are not usually found in many written texts. I was left with the feeling that the author had more to say than was printed and it may have been well to have waited to round out the book. No one has a feel as to the size of the debt, although it is briefly mentioned and not expounded upon at all. The writing style is easy and although the subject matter is heavy the book is hard to put down. I read it in three nights after work so you don't get discouraged as you move forward. Mr Robinson deserves a lot of credit for opening a rough subject and we await his next venture to finish the effort he started. The subtle impacts of the Debt are explored with stories of Black people struggling to make it in the US in spite of the enormous sacrifices of their forebears. I give it 4 stars, easily.