The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks

Randall Robinson is a gifted lawyer and public intellectual and has made a compelling case in this book for addressing the unfinished task of compensating the victims of American slavery.  Robinson doesn’t simply parrot the prevailing opinions of those who write about race in America, but in his own reflective way says about the same thing, namely that American Blacks have made a vast contribution to American development and culture that they have suffered grievously in the process, and are entitled to both apology and tangible reparations. 

The book can be sweeping in its scope.  Robinson possesses a good command of historical examples of reparations paid in societies around the world.  And the book can zoom in to the most miniscule examples of Black suffering, notably by elementary children in his acquaintance who are struggling in their school work.

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The Debt abounds in original reflection, such as his observations of Cuban race relationships garnered while on a good will tour with other American Black celebrities.  While the book is nearly 20 years old, it doesn’t suffer from any sense of datedness.  I read it profitably with an interracial book club which dealt with several much newer works.  Robinson’s prose is elegant, sometimes unnecessarily so, but usually with sentences that rival the brilliance of Dubois or Baldwin. 

Robinson, The Debt, Chapter Summaries:

“Introduction”

The Introduction is an extended reflection on Washington’s Capital Building with its fabulous dome and other artwork.  These, Robinson insists, are icons, monuments to the American ideals of freedom, individuality, justice, and the like.  Ironically, there is no acknowledgment in all of this public iconography of the enslaved persons who contributed the great bulk of the construction work on the building itself.  Slavery, together with the contributions by Black people to America’s wealth and character goes largely unacknowledged.  Until this erasure is set aside there will be no chance of America really bringing to a close its slavery tradition and coming into justice with the grandchildren of slaves.

Chapter 1: “Taking Into Account the Long-Term Psychic Damage”

The first chapter focuses on Washington DC’s various symbols and heroes of America’s identity and glory.  The chapter makes the point that these communicate nothing to American Blacks.  Heroes such as Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.  Charles Lindbergh was a shameless racist, the animated movie about Moses depicts the Egyptians as Middle Eastern rather than Black Africans.  This erasure of Blacks from American heritage is not intentional so much as it is perpetuated through ignorance.  Ultimately, it is with the slaves in George Washington’s grave yard that the author identifies.

Chapter 2: “Race to Class to Race”

The third chapter works to tease apart the entwined dilemmas of race and class.  Racism insinuates that African Americans perform poorly in school and life because they are Black.  Robinson says that they do poorly because they are poor.  More specifically, they don’t succeed in an array of metrics because the enduring legacy of slavery, plus racism, has cut into their ability to succeed. 

The chapter has three sections.  First, Robinson tells Anna’s story.  A twenty-something single mother of two, Anna struggles in a grim existence simply to get by.  She meets Robinson in a school meeting where he, as a lawyer, is evaluating implementation of Title I requirements, specifically parental involvement.  This narrative is Robinson’s device for shedding light on Anna’s dilemma.  A major part of her problem is Ms. Cooper, one of Anna’s daughter’s teachers.  Robinson explains the subtleties of Ms. Cooper’s tendency to bring low expectations to her work with Sarah.  In the second section Robinson describes the privileged school situation his own children enjoy.  Both the Robinsons and Anna are Black and their respective children take very different tracks and have different outcomes.  

The chapter concludes with Robinson’s assertion that poverty caused by racism rather than blackness leads to poor outcomes.

Chapter 4: “Self-hatred”

This chapter, consisting of several vignettes out of Robinson’s personal experience aims to expose the unique dilemma that Black people face as an erased and continually diminished group within American society.  The author states early in the chapter that the loss of Black history and erasure from American society are big parts of Black low self-esteem. 

Robinson reflects on pervasive racism implicit in sports logos and names.  He tells an inconclusive story of an insurance salesman who collected monthly premiums from his mother.  The suggestion here is that the simplest courtesies practiced by this White man were sufficient to win even the children’s appreciation.  This ease of social acceptability is a White entitlement, not afforded to other ethnic groups.  Finally, he reflects on a Black college commencement speaker who, in wanting to express gratitude, gave the words for “thank you” in several European languages.  Robinson speculates on the impossibility of such a statement in an all-White commencement that listed various African nations’ words for “Thank you.”  This illustration is subtle to be sure.  But it’s a good example of the pervasive way that in America any nationality other than Whites always manages to be the recipient of the dirty end of the deal.

Chapter 5: “Demanding Respect”

This chapter is a reflection on the need for American Blacks to focus relentlessly on political issues that provide measureable change for the African-American community.  They need to avoid being distracted by superficial political gestures like appointments to token positions.  The chapter opens with an extended examination of Bill Clinton.  Absolutely loved by Blacks, Clinton did practically nothing for them and much which hurt them. 

The chapter closes with a fanciful idea to keep black voters focused on substantive issues.  The idea is to issue a small card on which is printed a short list of issues that Blacks should care about.  The card is a device to neutralize the charm of politicians who, year after year, have gotten Black votes and given nothing in return.  The point is that Blacks need to use the political system to get exactly what they need.  Advancement of the race demands nothing less.

Chapter 6: Race, “Money, and Foreign Policy”

This chapter is structured around a bus trip taken by an American delegation to visit Fidel Castro.  The trip was filmed ty BET.  Robinson hangs several insights on this device, most of which compliment Cuba, which manages to achieve a higher moral tone than does the US.  America in many ways is so big that in order to gain an understanding of its character, one must view it from abroad as Robinson does from Cuba. 

He writes first about America’s punishing economic embargo of Cuba.  Robinson moves to discuss the solidarity born of the shared experience of slavery that the American Blacks felt with their counterparts in Cuba.  Cuba, however, does not have as sharp a dividing line between Black and White as does the United States.  Unlike Whites in America, many Cubans of all races might see themselves as Afro-cuban.  Robinson moves on to suggest that the American negativity towards revolutionary Cuba is misleading and that Cuba is not nearly as oppressive or backward as Americans have been led to believe.   

The narrative of Cuba’s degeneracy into socialist hell began with the exaggerated story of Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill.  It continued with a somewhat apocryphal story of the sinking of the Maine, which became justification for the launch of the Spanish American War.  In his musings on Cuban healthcare, Robinson noted that Cuban doctors and clinics suffer under the embargo which deprives Cubans from high end health interventions.  Robinson speculates that Fidel Castro’s open defiance of the US and his plunder of the rich in Cuba were sins of sufficient severity to invite American retaliation.  Castro himself, Robinson observes, is unlike other thuggish autocrats.  Robinson gives several examples of how American journalists perpetuate stereotypes of Cuba as a hermit kingdom, such as the trope that Cuba has no clocks.  Castro himself appears reflective when asked about race relations on the island.  He admits that he has underestimated the difficulty of the problem and is committed to continuing to work on it.

Chapter 7: “The Cost of Ignoring the Race Problem in America”

There is a threefold sequence in addressing the problem of race in America: We must first see the problem; then, devise solutions, and finally resolve to act to implement the solutions.  The hard one is the first one, seeing the problem.  Racism operates in front of us and it never strikes us as a problem. 

The chapter culminates with five very explicit steps needed to counter the blindness and reluctance to put solutions in place.  These are, 1) We must face and accept the income and wealth gap between America’s Blacks and Whites.  2) We must review American history from the point of view of all groups.  3)  We must acknowledge that America is not a White nation.  4) We must transform public places and monuments so to memorialize all races.  5)  And we must recover the erased history of African civilization.

Chapter 8:  “…And in the Black World”

This chapter looks at the West’s relationship with Africa and other nations of the African diaspora.  It reaches the conclusion that despite the patina of concern and helpfulness, the condition of the poor countries never changes much.  Further, Africa and her peoples have contributed vastly to other nations wealth.  In the bargain they have been left unable to follow in the developed world’s footsteps. 

This is why Africa has not gained development and wealth comparable to that of the West.  Robinson illustrates this by citing the high debt service that hobbles African economies.  Interest payments in the mid-1980’s took more money than some nations were spending on health care and education.  Many of these loans were negotiated between the US and unelected tyrants.  In turn, debt deals include low-tax, tariff-light conditions for American corporate investment.  One of the reasons that Africans are drawn into these deals is because America sparkles with beauty, wealth, and power. 

Robinson tells of President Clinton’s betrayal of the island of St. Vincent, when he granted to Chiquita exclusive purchasing rights to its banana crop.  A outcome in the same time frame was the US’s treatment of White refugees from Kosovo as compared with its treatment of poor Black refugees from Rwanda.  Robinson is basically saying that American politicians and business people are quit3e deceptive in dealings with weaker countries.  The story is always the same.  The US leaves the weaker countries to struggle after they have, as they always do, discovered that they’ve been given the bad side of the deal.

Chapter 9: “Thoughts About Restitution”

In this lengthy and profound chapter, Robinson brings his book to a climax.  He argues persuasively here that the centuries-long crime of plundering Africa, transporting slaves, stealing their labor, and extending that oppression into the present through laws and social practices has been the greatest crime against humanity in the modern era. 

He goes on to assert America’s racial problems will stretch on forever it we continue to leave this issue unacknowledged with no effort towards restitution.  The most compelling part of the argument were his citations of other societies’ efforts toward restitution and resolution, notably Germany’s efforts to compensate its Jewish victims and their offspring. 

Robinson tabulates rough but convincing numbers that quantify the scope of the wrong produced by 380 years of Black suffering.  He reminds the reader of the collapse of America’s paltry efforts to provide newly liberated Southern slaves with small plots of land. 

He concludes this fact and insight-laden chapter by observing that the after-effects of slavery still live on even in Black school children who find themselves sinking in social and economic status even before they’re out of elementary school.

Chapter 10: “Toward the Black Renaissance”

This chapter is gratifying because it offers a surprisingly concrete plan to actually accomplish reparations.  Beginning with a full acknowledgement of the debt the country owes its Black citizens, most of whom are descendants of the victims who were most brutally diminished by slavery, Robinson proposes establishing a fund that would provide a high quality alternative to public education exclusively for Black children.  Upon graduation from these special schools, Black children would attend colleges of their choice at no cost.  Such a program would be viewed as a form of restoration that is rightly due to African Americans rather than means-tested poverty assistance.