The Debt What America Owes to Blacks - Essay Example

Randall Robinson's book "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks" Randall Robinson is a prominent American human rights advocate who fights against racial inequalities and depicts in his works casualties of life and hardship of black Americans caused by discrimination. He portrays emotional sufferings of a black American nation and their high hopes for better days which help to create a unique atmosphere in his works. Randall Robinson was born in Richmond in 1941. From early childhood, he was faced with racial discrimination and inequalities, humiliation and segregation on the racial basis. Both of his parents were teachers at high school. Randall Robinson went to the public schools in Richmond, and then was "drafted into the army" (TransAfrica founder, 2005). After the army, Robinson earned BA in sociology in Virginia Union University and than, attended the Harvard University Law School for advanced graduate work. All these years Randall Robinson participated in different political campaigns including the movement against apartheid in South Africa. After graduation, Randall Robinson "won a Ford Foundation fellowship that allowed him to work in Tanzania" (TransAfrica founder, 2005). Being an experienced human rights advocate, Randall Robinson did everything to protect human's rights and resist to the world coalition of false peacemakers who did nothing to help people in South Africa during the genocide period. Some years of research had shown that abuse of power in African countries was caused by "concealment" policy provided by American government. In order to change this policy, Randall Robinson founded "TransAfrica" organization (1977) aimed to "keep before the public the plight of Africa and the Caribbean" (TransAfrica founder, 2005). His thoughts and ideas about racial and ethnical relations Randall Robinson expressed in several books ("The Debt","The Reckoning, and "Defending The Spirit") informing our society about real state of the matters in African countries and the US policy towards African and Caribbean nations. Thesis statement Human rights movement, anti-discrimination and anti-segregation policies are sill an issue of the day for many people. The topicality of these problems has deep roots and goes back to the period of slavery, nevertheless, every historian and political figure should be objective and impartial evaluating causes and effects of historical processes took place long time ago. Ideas. In his book "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks", Randall Robinson discusses a very important question concerning equal rights and contribution of African-American to creation of a nation and national development of the USA. Randall Robinson calls it a "debt" before black people who were enslaved during a long time, and asks for reparations as a fair compensation for their sufferings caused by discrimination policies of "white" society and the government. Randall Robinson underlines that slavery was one of the most important pages in the history of American nation, but it is high time to pay back for the trick "whites" played on black Americans. In his book, Robinson provides vivid examples of slave labour, and explains why the government and nation in general has to pay. He writes that slaves were used to "clear a broad swath of forest" for the Capitol building on Jenkins Hill and the President's Palace, "the worn and pitted stones, They had mixed the mortar. They had sawn the long timbers in hellishly dangerous pits with one slave out of the pit and another in, often nearly buried alive in sawdust" (Robertson, 3). Robertson underlines that this work has been taken for granted as a causal explanation of slavery. There seemed to be general agreement that slavery and the material resources to which it gave access would do far better as a general explanation of the phenomena under discussion. Randall Robinson supposes that American government must compensation 246 years of "de jure" discrimination policy through educational and economic programs for black population, because black Americans are faced with inequalities and educational segregation throughout the country. He compares the slavery period with nazi invasion stated that: "For twelve years Nazi Germany inflicted horrors upon European Jews. And Germany paid. It paid Jews individually. It paid the state of Israel" (Robinson, 23). Randall Robinson pays much attention to the history of African people supposing that African and African American history can help to understand current problems of African Americans and can help to find appropriate solutions. At the beginning of the book, Randall Robinson writes that: "I was born in 1941, but old soul is much older than that" (Robinson,1). In his book, Randall Robinson describes that apartheid in Africa had the effect of re-shaping existing ethnic identities and sometimes creating totally new ones, although not necessarily with the awareness of those who were the main actors in the process. Robinson says that slavery lasted so long, because it was legitimatised by "whites" and government policy which played a crucial role. He explains to thousands of people that Americans owe black people much more than "money": it stoles their happiness and their destiny. Also, Randall Robinson analyzes the problems of Caribbean region vividly portraying sufferings of people and foreign policy of Cuba and America towards racial differences. The main contribution of Randall Robinson is that he did everything to stop genocide, and reduce the number of deaths in the country protecting innocent people. His literary work changed greatly people's underatnding of the events occurred many years ago, and as the most important, his book allows people around the world to know the truth about African American history and roots of the racial probalmes. Randall Robinson was able to reflect on the horror and use his own experiences to try to fix what is wrong in the world. The main contribution of Randall Robinson to the world is his analysis of the causes and outcome of slavery, and its impact on the contemprary policy. He supposes that "No race, ethnic or religious group has suffered as much over so long a span as blacks have" (Robertson, 71). The most impressive is the part "Toward the Black Renaissance" where he expresses high hopes that one day black Americans will be granted and compensated for all their sufferings in full. Critique In spite topicality of the discussion and arguments provided by Randall Robinson, his research has a lot of limitations. Primarily, if we follow his arguments and agree that a country has to compensate financial damage to its citisens caused to their ancestors, we should accept that every country in the world must pay such reparations. For instance, lets take Russian Empire and servitude of peasants which lasted for 5 centuries (much more than 246 years) and the Tatar yoke. Their life was worse and more difficult that life of many black American slaves. Lets take into account Asian countries, Japan and China, or Muddle East where the institute of slavery had existed for a long time and had a great impact on social inequalities and discrimination. If we look at slaves who built the White House, we can find the same examples in many countries around the world. For instance, Sanct - Petersburg (Russia) was build "on the bones of slaves", the Great Wall of China or Egyptian pyramidswere also built by enslaved people. Must those countries compensate their citizens pitfalls caused by historical development Probably, they must not, because it was a natural process of historical development. It seems that Randall Robinson does not know history well, because, according to a theoratical model, every civilisation evolves through 5 structural patterns, and a "slave-owning structure" of society is one of them. Neither country in the world can avoid this process, so, the institute of slavery was a natural process for American society. Every country had some peculiarities of a "slave-owning structure" and enslavement of black population was a remarkable feature of American historical development. On the other hand, apartheid in Africa and in SAR (South African Republic) in particular, took place in the XX century, and it has nothing to do with 246 years of slavery in America. It was a terrible genocide of a native African population, but it concerns only a foreign policy of the US government. Robertson supports his arguments by Jewish and Japanese Americans reparations, but, they were completely different processes which took place during the WWII. If we accept Robertson view, we should agree that the USA has to pay the population of Iraq for the damage caused by military operations, which ruined their houses and life. Taking into account the ideas expressed in the book, it is possible to say that his arguments are full of racism. It is impossible to claim a government and a country (America or any other) in mistakes caused by historical processes which took place centuries ago. Racial and ethnical issues In general, the book addresses many very important questions which need attention of global society. It gives a very interesting historical analysis of African history and its importance in creation of a nation; it unveils unknown facts about Apartheid and oppression of Caribbean population, and the role of American government in these processes. In spite some limitation of the book, it discusses ethnical problems of African population paying particular attention to their impact on present day situation in the world. The ideas expressed in the book shows that internal wars are particularly destructive of the lives and livelihoods of civilians. The particular ethnic materials, then, out of which the African political elite fashioned its policy of politicized ethnicity were a legacy of 50 years of colonial rule. Robertson's account of the techniques used to whip up ethnic hatred and violence criticizes the popular view, propagated by intellectuals, politicians and journalists, that the conflicts were caused by differences in the society. Robertson underlines that in many cases rivals for power make use of ethnic differences as a political resource, but the differences themselves are not responsible for war. It is possible to conclude that Randall Robinson symbolises the brave and courageous actions of those who want to prevent the injustice and unfairness of genocide around the world. He made an extraordinary commitment to his country, to the international community and to his fellows, convincing and compelling public to think and protect human's rights and dignity of those nations who is weak and needs global support. References 1. Randall Robinson. Keppler Speakers. (2005). Available at: http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/robinsonrandall.asp 2. Robinson, R. (2000). The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. Dutton Adult. 3. TransAfrica founder. (2005). Available at: http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1475/TransAfrica_founder_Randall_Robinson_ Read More