A Visii horn
By April Bethea
adbethea@email.unc.edu
Acclaimed human rights advocate and
author Randall Robinson enlightened an
audience of 200 during a luncheon held
Feb. 24 at the Carolina Inn.
Robinson's visit was a part of the sev
enth annual Blacks in the Diaspora Student
Academic Conference. The two-day event
featured research presentations by students
from UNC-CH and other .schools across the
United States and in Canada.
The Sonja Haynes Black Cultural
Center and the Institute for African-
American Research sponsored the confer
ence, themed "Building Tomorrow Today".
Robinson is the president and founder of
TransAfrica, a lobbying organization work
ing to influence U.S. foreign policy towards
Africa and the Caribbean.
Following an opening address by Kim
Allen of the Institute of African-American
Research, BCC Interim Director Harry
Amana spoke briefly on the future of the
freestanding building including its
groundbreaking ceremony slated for late
April. The building will house many on-
campus cultural resources, including
offices for the BCC, the Institute for
African-American Research, Upward
Bound, a library and an auditorium.
"This is going to be a showplace for the
Southeast, and possibly the entire nation,"
Amana said.
Reginald Hildebrand, associate profes
sor of African-American studies, intro
duced Robinson by first noting that Feb. 23
- the first day of the conference - marked
the birthday of famed African-American
scholar W.E.B. DuBois. He said he believes
the legacy of DuBois lives on in Robinson.
Hildebrand also spoke on Robinson's
relentless efforts in the struggle to end
apartheid in South Africa, which included
staging daily protests at the South African
Embassy for more than 400 days. Many
attribute Robinson's work to helping pro
pel the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990
after spending 27 years in a South African
prison.
"No one in the U.S. had a greater right to
be jubilant of the release of Mandela than
our speaker," he said.
But Hildebrand said Robinson did not
attend the inauguration of Nelson
Mandela as president of South Africa in
1994 because Mandela staged a 27-day
hunger strike in response to U.S. policy
towards Haiti.
Robinson opened his address by recall
ing his childhood and the experiences he
had with segregation growing up in
Richmond, VA. "It was complete. It was
suffocating. It was scarring," he said.
"And I will take those scars with me to
my grave."
Robinson said that while integration
gave many blacks an opportunity to pros
per in mainstream American culture, it
caused problems for others. "Integration
produced an exit for many of us but a
grave for others of us," he said.
Robinson's lecture also focused on
Black History Month, which he said has
always puzzled him because it forces
black history to be separated from the his
tories of other Americans, and it is limited
to one month of the year.
"I've always been conflicted by Black
History Mon^," he said.
Robinson jokingly referred to comedian
Dick Gregory who has also commented on
the celebration's being held in February,
"the month with some of the dates miss
ing."
Robinson said he does not understand
why Americans treat black history, as well
as that of Hispanics and Asian Americans,
as something separate from the histories of
other cultures. "How can one segregate
history?" he asked.
Robinson said he was also critical of
Black History Month because he said it
gives the false impression that black histo-
ry began with slavery. "This period of our
story (in America) represents one-tenth of
less than one percent of our people," he
said.
Robinson said that it was not until his
college years that he learned of the great
achievements of African sociehes as well as
Blacks in the United States and said that he
felt cheated from the lack of knowledge.
"They told me their story but they would
n't allow me to have access to mine," he
said.
Robinson's most recent book, "The Debt:
flANDAIJ. ROBINSON
WHAT
AMERICA
owes
TO
LACKS
What America Owes to Blacks," invokes a
discussion on reparations to black
Americans for slavery. Robinson said he
believes the United States should make
some effort to the descendants of African
slaves brought to the country just like
Germany has done to Jewish victims of the
Holocaust and Australia has for the
Aborigines. "When a government partici
pates in crimes against humanity, those
governments are obliged to make the vic
tims whole," he said.
Robinson said slavery stripped black
Americans from preserving the language,
history and culture of their ancestors.
"In a period of 246 years, we lost the
very thing people need to know; who we
are," he said.
He also said that it seems odd to him
that people view the idea of reparations as
radical. But he added that many profes
sional black organizations are now saying
they support reparations.
Robinson closed his lecture by saying
that while reparations may offer some
restitution for the horrors of slavery, the
money may do little to completely restore
the history and identity of blacks.
"(But) by provoking the debate and forc
ing the discussion, it will mean at the end
of the day we will have, at the very least,
discovered ourselves."
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Black INK