BET Founder And Billionaire Robert Johnson Wants $14 Trillion For Reparations For Slavery
Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and believes that in the name of reducing racial inequality, the U.S. government should hand out $14 trillion for reparations for slavery.
Johnson, the first black billionaire in America, made his comments during an interview on CNBC.
âNow is the time to go big.â BET founder Robert Johnson calls for âfull and completeâ reparations for descendants of slaves. pic.twitter.com/6CoR51OIXL
â CNBC (@CNBC) June 1, 2020
Johnson: Reparations The Greatest âAffirmative Action Program Of All Timeâ
Johnson said on âSquawk Box,â âNow is the time to go big⊠wealth transfer is whatâs needed.â
He focused on racial inequity.
âThink about this,â Johnson said. âSince 200-plus-years or so of slavery, labor taken with no compensation, is a wealth transfer. Denial of access to education, which is a primary driver of accumulation of income and wealth, is a wealth transfer.â
Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 2001, making the 74-year-old Americaâs first black billionaire.
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He called reparations the greatest âaffirmative action program of all time.â
Johnson said that the payment would show that white Americans acknowledge âdamages that are owedâ because of slavery and how that represented a âwealth transfer to white Americans away from African Americans.â
âDamages is a normal factor in a capitalist society for when you have been deprived for certain rights,â he said.
Johnson continued, âIf this money goes into pockets like the [coronavirus] stimulus checks ⊠that money is going to return back to the economyâ in the form of buying goods and services.
Johnson noted that his support for reparations is not new.Â
âIâm not new to this challenge.â He also stressed that he doesnât want âmore bureaucratic programs that donât deliver and donât perform.â
âIâm talking about cash,â Johnson insisted. âWe are a society based on wealth. Thatâs the foundation of capitalism.â
BET founder Robert Johnson calls for $14 trillion of reparations for slavery https://t.co/fkZT7U3hcu
â Michaâel C. York đșđž (@micha_york) June 30, 2021
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Are Reparations Realistic?
Merck Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier, who is black, followed Johnson on CNBC and openly doubted possible reparations.
âI donât believe weâll be able to get anything like that through our political system,â Frazier said.
âLeaders in the business community have to be a unifying force,â Frazier noted. âThey can be a source of opportunity. They can be a source of understanding.â
âWe as business leaders can step up and solve many of these economic problems for people,â Frazier added.
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