Compare Malcolm X and the Debt

INTRODUCTION

This research paper seeks to review two books: The Debt: What America owes Black America by Randall Robinson and Malcolm X by Alex Haley. I will review each book individually recapping the main points and summarizing each one and then compare and contrast the different ideas and implications that were set forth in the book. I will point out the similarities such as the human suffering and struggle that each book recount but also point out the differences in these struggle and their objectives.

Review of "The Debt: What America owes Black America."

"The Debt: What America owes Black America," is a recount of the history of Black Americans suffering throughout history from the inhuman slavery to present day inequality and discrimination that blacks faced even today. It is also based on Randall Robinson's experience and struggles in the Civil rights Movement to fight racism and discrimination, thorough out his career as a civil rights Leader and the founder and president of TransAfrica (a lobbying organization dedicated to influencing U.S. policy toward Africa and the Caribbean). Unlike most, famous Civil Rights leaders, he went a step further in rationalizing why reparation should be given to Africa American because of their 246+ years of slavery and ongoing discrimination. In this very controversial book Randall Robinson lay down the necessary ground work for future discussion and debate on a subject so controversial that some may think it absurd to make such suggestions and claims. As Randal Robinson pointed out, "It is essentially about restoring, preserving and acting upon that memory - of two and a half centuries of enslavement, followed by another century of segregation, lynching and brutality, followed by another four decades of unwilling change that sometimes does not take effect even if it is made law. It is about restoring to a small extent the proud memory of the rich history and culture that has essentially been blotted from our memory." This book can be seen as a ground-breaking and of far reaching idea that some might consider preposterous but Randall Robinson give credence to his argument by supporting evidence that there are precedents where reparation has been paid to other groups who have been mistreated before.

As Robinson posited in his Introduction, "the very Capitol Dome of our nation, with a fresco on the ceiling (painted in 1864, nearly at the moment of Emancipation) and oil paintings at ground level, manages to portray American history and sacred American principles without showing a single black man or woman. Yet to erect the building that would house the art that symbolized American democracy, the United States government sent out a request for one hundred slaves. " It was slaves who "fired and stacked the bricks ... mixed the mortar ... sawed the long timbers in hellishly dangerous pits with one slave out of the pit and another in, often nearly buried alive in sawdust." Throughout the book recounted the horror of slavery and the input of African Americans in the building of America. In The Debt: What America owes Black America, he reflects in very personal way the building of America and the cost that the Black slaves paid in that process. He recounts the inhumane conditions black slaves worked under and the countless death and persecution of black slaves and in the end the children of these Black slaves (now African American) have little or nothing to show for their forefather's struggle and suffering. Randall Robinson is one of the few courageous people who challenges America to live up to her ideals of democracy and equal treatment for all both politically, socially and economically.

Randall Robinson, proposed that White Americans should then begin making reparations for slavery and hundred of years of racial discriminations that were part of the social, economic, political fabric of the American way of life. He suggested that monetary restitution, educational programs and the kinds of equal opportunities that will ensure the social and economic success of all citizens of America. He challenged the white establishments to lives up to their promise of "an Acre and a mule." He lucidly states that this divide cannot be bridged without two crucial factors in place. He suggests that America more so white America more so some Major corporation that benefited from slavery and discrimination takes responsibility for the institution of slavery and its visible impact and scars that remain to this day. America must provide redress through reparations. However according to Rihcard A Epstein, "Here it is an open secret that just about every major private institution in the United States fears the tarnish to its good name that comes from a credible assertion that it is racist." (2) Secondly, Randall Robinson challenges the African-American community to arm themselves with a comprehensive awareness of their history and a complete understanding of their ongoing contribution to our country and the world.

Backing his argument with recent and relevant precedent Randall Robinson gave example of the twelve years Hitler's Nazi Germany inflicted untold horror and suffering on European Jews. Eventually Germany made reparation for their ills to the children of those that suffered. It paid Jews individually. It paid the state of Israel. According to Lawrence Bush in the Literary Review Reconstructionism Today, "The principle, set forward in the [1952 Luxembourg] agreement and amplified by Ben-Gurion for other reparation claims that would follow, was simple. When a government kills its own people or facilitates their involuntary servitude and generalized victimization based on group membership, then that government or its successor has a moral obligation to materially compensate that group in a way that would make it whole, while recognizing that material compensation alone can never adequately compensate the victims of great human rights crimes (1). The significance of any such payment will not only infer an acceptance of the evil and moral perversion duing the years of Slavery but it will the first time any significant apology would be made unbehalf of the Government of America. It is more than the money. The the symbolilsm of the act. Lawrence Bush went on to state that, " For Jews and for Israel, this principle has had a moral value that greatly exceeded the actual reparation dollars: The concept of the Jewish state as an "affirmative action," and the recent efforts by survivors and their allies to press claims against corporations, banks, and other beneficiaries of Jewish suffering, were given lasting