Post by blackviking on Jun 17, 2006 11:11:31 GMT -5
Randall Robinson advocates reparations for slavery
By MIKHAILINA KARINA
When a wrong is done, there is no statute of limitations on that wrong, Randall Robinson told a packed audience last Thursday.
Founder and president of TransAfrica Forum, international advocate for human rights and democracy, and author of The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, Robinson was the keynote speaker for AU's Black History Month celebration.
The dilemma of reparations for slavery has been around since the Emancipation Proclamation, but the questions of who gets the reparations, how much is fair, and who should pay remain unresolved. According to some estimates, the United States owes several trillion dollars for the labor performed by African slaves.
Reparation paid by governments to individual victims of crimes is a well-established international practice. Robinson pointed out that governments (who had no direct links to the regimes that wronged their citizens) have paid large monetary reparations for crimes committed during World War II: the German government is still paying Holocaust survivors for the crimes of the Nazi regime, 16 German corporations that used Jewish slave laborers agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle a claim, the Japanese government paid reparations to Japanese and Korean women forced into prostitution for Japanese troops, and the United States government paid $20,000 to each Japanese American forcibly interned in camps. But when it comes to victims of "the American Holocaust"-African slavery-America practices denial, he said.
Under the international law, it should be easy to make the case for reparations, said Robinson. When a government does something to hurt its own population, it is obligated to make the victims whole again.
This does not mean the citizens of the United States, many of whom include immigrants who arrived after 1865, should have to pay for wrongful government policy. Rather, Robinson said, the United States government is a continuous, living body that must be held accountable for all its previous actions and make amends for past mistakes. "This country became wealthy because of a people it exploited and destroyed," he said, "and it owes those people."
When Robinson talks about reparations, he does not suggest cash payouts to descendants of former slaves, but need-based programs to lift up African Americans victimized by slavery. His plan includes a comprehensive educational campaign that will introduce African Americans to their ancient cultural heritage, expose the full extent of their exploitation during slavery, and demonstrate how their current economic condition is a direct result of slavery.
"The tactic of slavery was to cut people off from what they know about themselves," he said. When other crimes against humanity took place throughout history, the aggressors decimated the population and destroyed property, but often left the victims with their language, religion, history, songs, arts, and memories of who they are, which enabled them to put their culture back together. But the crime of slavery in the United States was the "asphyxiating patience" with which it destroyed any remnants of native African cultures.
After learning to appreciate their ancient roots and confronting the socioeconomic forces holding them back, Robinson says African Americans need to get on the road to success by receiving free college education for several generations to come. As an example, he cited Brown University, whose founders built ships for transporting slaves out of Africa. "We paid our tuition a long time ago," he said.
He also wants to engage the rest of American society in the discussion of reparations, which he defines in terms of repair, not payback. First, it is important to consolidate the support from the African American community by showing that understanding of the past leads to liberation.
Does Robinson think his plan is possible? For nearly a quarter of a century he worked toward ending apartheid in South Africa and did not think he'd live to see the day when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison. It's necessary to start out believing that everything is possible, he said, even when faced with a torrent of opposition.
"When you know who you are, there is no limit to what you are capable of doing."
veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weeklypast/weeklypast/030700/story_4.html
By MIKHAILINA KARINA
When a wrong is done, there is no statute of limitations on that wrong, Randall Robinson told a packed audience last Thursday.
Founder and president of TransAfrica Forum, international advocate for human rights and democracy, and author of The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, Robinson was the keynote speaker for AU's Black History Month celebration.
The dilemma of reparations for slavery has been around since the Emancipation Proclamation, but the questions of who gets the reparations, how much is fair, and who should pay remain unresolved. According to some estimates, the United States owes several trillion dollars for the labor performed by African slaves.
Reparation paid by governments to individual victims of crimes is a well-established international practice. Robinson pointed out that governments (who had no direct links to the regimes that wronged their citizens) have paid large monetary reparations for crimes committed during World War II: the German government is still paying Holocaust survivors for the crimes of the Nazi regime, 16 German corporations that used Jewish slave laborers agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle a claim, the Japanese government paid reparations to Japanese and Korean women forced into prostitution for Japanese troops, and the United States government paid $20,000 to each Japanese American forcibly interned in camps. But when it comes to victims of "the American Holocaust"-African slavery-America practices denial, he said.
Under the international law, it should be easy to make the case for reparations, said Robinson. When a government does something to hurt its own population, it is obligated to make the victims whole again.
This does not mean the citizens of the United States, many of whom include immigrants who arrived after 1865, should have to pay for wrongful government policy. Rather, Robinson said, the United States government is a continuous, living body that must be held accountable for all its previous actions and make amends for past mistakes. "This country became wealthy because of a people it exploited and destroyed," he said, "and it owes those people."
When Robinson talks about reparations, he does not suggest cash payouts to descendants of former slaves, but need-based programs to lift up African Americans victimized by slavery. His plan includes a comprehensive educational campaign that will introduce African Americans to their ancient cultural heritage, expose the full extent of their exploitation during slavery, and demonstrate how their current economic condition is a direct result of slavery.
"The tactic of slavery was to cut people off from what they know about themselves," he said. When other crimes against humanity took place throughout history, the aggressors decimated the population and destroyed property, but often left the victims with their language, religion, history, songs, arts, and memories of who they are, which enabled them to put their culture back together. But the crime of slavery in the United States was the "asphyxiating patience" with which it destroyed any remnants of native African cultures.
After learning to appreciate their ancient roots and confronting the socioeconomic forces holding them back, Robinson says African Americans need to get on the road to success by receiving free college education for several generations to come. As an example, he cited Brown University, whose founders built ships for transporting slaves out of Africa. "We paid our tuition a long time ago," he said.
He also wants to engage the rest of American society in the discussion of reparations, which he defines in terms of repair, not payback. First, it is important to consolidate the support from the African American community by showing that understanding of the past leads to liberation.
Does Robinson think his plan is possible? For nearly a quarter of a century he worked toward ending apartheid in South Africa and did not think he'd live to see the day when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison. It's necessary to start out believing that everything is possible, he said, even when faced with a torrent of opposition.
"When you know who you are, there is no limit to what you are capable of doing."
veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weeklypast/weeklypast/030700/story_4.html