But Robinson’s book has overcome both those obstacles, and so it has become the manifesto for a movement recently revivified by Representative John Conyers and pored over by black readers and reading groups across the country. Robinson’s title faithfully conveys the tone of the new reparations movement. Bittker ended his book by saying that “I have sought to open the question, not to close it,” but Robinson, while he initially claims “to pose the question, to invite the debate,” clearly considers the moral urgency of reparations a closed issue. Bittker made a case for reparations, but Robinson’s theme is “the debt,” the definite article dogmatically implying the existence of the bill that is owed us. In the face of such righteous certainty, those who question whether there is merit to the idea of reparations are certainly not welcome to join the discussion. What is being described as an exploration is in fact a call to arms. Robinson presents his position as representative of the race, and he sets things up so that the failure of America to heed his call can be explained only by the eternal hostility of white people toward black people.
