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Early Edition

Robinson: For '346 years, the United States Government Was Complicit in a Crime Against Humanity That Penalized Blacks'

Aired January 17, 2000 - 7:34 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Washington, Randall Robinson is involved in the struggle against racism, and he has a new book out, it's title, "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks." It takes a look at the controversial issue of social, racial, economic justice.

And Randall Robinson joins us this morning. He's in our Washington bureau.

Good morning. Thank you very much for coming in and talking to us today.

RANDALL ROBINSON, AUTHOR, "THE DEBT": Good morning.

HARRIS: Let's begin at the very top. What do you mean by the debt? And what is it that you're suggesting in this book?

ROBINSON: From 1619, when slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, until 1965, 346 years, the United States government was complicit in a crime against humanity that penalized blacks: first, 246 years of slavery, and then, 100 years that followed with discrimination and segregation, all of which was imposed against blacks with the complicity of the United States government. This period, these 346 years of American government involvement in discrimination and segregation and slavery, combined to consign blacks to the economic bottom of American society.

And if we, in the spirit of the King holiday, wish to commit ourselves to economic justice and closing the economic gap between blacks and whites, then it would require some measure of considerable reparations to lift those blacks who are still consigned to the economic bottom of this country.

HARRIS: And by bringing up that word reparations, you bring up something of another kind of third rail of discussion in this country; it's something that no one really want to talk about. In fact, I mean, we're looking at a -- we're in a day and age right now where we have a discussion about people, you know -- a conflict in South Carolina over the flag over the state capital there. How is it that you can have this discussion in this kind of climate?

ROBINSON: Well, I think it's evidence of a continuing problem of racism in American society. We don't mind talking about it when our government gives what we ought to give in the way of support for efforts in Germany to seek reparations from German corporations that used Jews as slaves during World War II, during the Nazi terror. We don't mind reparations when the Japanese provided to Korean women that were forced into prostitution. We don't mind when Canada provides it to native Canadians. But when blacks raise it, the victims of the longest running human rights crime in the world over the last 500 years, we're disinclined to look at it because we don't want to visit our own past.

America's in a state of massive denial on slavery, and it's sad that one can visit the National Mall in Washington now and see monuments virtually to everything, including a Holocaust Memorial, plans for Japanese Memorial Park, a museum to honor Indians in America, which -- all of which we should have, but not a thing about slavery; that still divides our society still and keeps blacks with its on-running implications at the bottom.

We need to pass the Conyers resolution before the Congress that calls for a study of the effects of slavery on contemporary blacks. And to close this gap in America, we're going to have to address this problem with programs that focus on those who are penalized still in our society because what was done to them over a 346-year period.

HARRIS: Well, we're going to have to close this discussion. Unfortunately, we're out of time this morning. I wish we had more time to talk about it; lots of different facets of this story.

Randall Robinson, author of "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks." Lots of information in there. We thank you very much for coming in and talking to us today.

ROBINSON: Thanks for having me.

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