The Debt America Summary

The Debt America Owes to Blacks

Known as not only the president but the founder of TransAfrica organization, the organization that had an extreme impact on U.S. policies being enforced in the Caribbean and Africa, Randall Robinson, a Virginia Union University and Harvard Law School alumni, is a well known civil rights attorney in Boston, Massachusetts. Randall Robinson founded the TransAfrica organization in 1977. The TransAfrica organization one of the largest social justice groups in the United States aimed to achieve equal treatment for the people in Africa and the Caribbean. Robinson and the TransAfrica organization was against apartheid's. Robinson is known to have been a part of the anti-apartheid movement. He contributed to freeing Nelson Mandela. He also had a large contribution in the restoration of
Haiti’s democracy. Randall Robinson’s impact with the United States and the Black community is unspeakable and unforgettable.
The Debt America Owes to Blacks is a powerful display of Robinson conducting a preservative argument regarding to what America owns African Americans. African Americans have suffered from tons of damage for 250 years of slavery and segregation. Robinson voices his feeling that America must own up to the wrongs they have put African Americans through and take steps to amend to the wrongs that were done. African Americans need more awareness about their ancient history, their heritage and the history about those who have paid the way for them. For example, in the introduction of the book it talks about United States Capitol.
Robinson explains the Rotunda paintings and how looking at the Rotunda you would not know that slavery ever happened.
“No reference is made to blacks or slavery in any of the paintings. In the whole Rotunda, only a small bust of Martin Luther King Jr intrudes on an overall iconography of an America.” Robinson speaks on the miseducation of African Americans and how they are not taught about the Rotunda in the capital and how helped build slaves the White house, The United States Capitol and other government buildings. The content of the book can be closely related to culture appropriation. It goes back to the thought that Black people do not receive the rightful recognition that they deserve. Instead culture is being taken from them and turned into something that is seemingly “new.” The comparison between the two feed off of the distinct notion of inequality. In Robinson's previous book Defending the Spirit, he speaks on America’s racism. In The Debt America Owes to Black, he continues to speaking on racism but also tries to get America to acknowledge their wrongful actions and the extensive amount of financial debt they are in with the Black
community. “When I discover who I am then I will be free” – Robinson. In chapter one Robinson uses this quote to express his feelings. He feels as though the more he finds out he has a greater understanding of things. The more we educate ourselves we open up more doors for ourselves. But we have to take pride into wanting to learn and educate ourselves every day.
In conclusion “the debt” is wake up call for us to start cherishing the wonderful culture we have and start taking pride to educate ourselves. We have to want to learn about our heritage. Knowing we have work harder to get the respect we deserve. Nothing in this world is given to us if you want it you have to go get it.