BET Founder Calls For $14 Trillion In Slavery Reparations
BET founder Robert Johnson argued Monday that “now is the time” for white America to acknowledge damages resulting from slavery, and for the U.S. Government to provide reparations in the sum of a $14 trillion wealth transfer to help prevent the country from splitting into separate and unequal societies.
BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ – NOVEMBER 20: President-elect Donald Trump (C) greets Robert Johnson (R), … [+]
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KEY FACTS
He was interviewed by CNBC on Monday morning, following six nights of protests, largely focused on police brutality, that have ravaged the country.
Johnson told CNBC that “now is the time to go big,” and that the government should pay trillions of dollars for reparations to help reduce racial inequality.
Johnson called reparations the “affirmative action program of all time,” and added that they were so important because it would demonstrate that white Americans acknowledge “damages that are owed” for the injustices created by slavery.
Later Monday morning on CNBC, Merck Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier, who is black, said he was skeptical that a reparations bill would find requisite governmental support.
Johnson became America’s first black billionaire when he sold Black Entertainment Television to Viacom in 2001.
CRITICAL QUOTE:
“Wealth transfer is what’s needed,” Johnson said. “Think about this. Since 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.”
BIG NUMBER:
$153,850. That’s the difference in median net worth between black families ($17,150) and white families ($171,000) in America, according to Federal Reserve data.
His press release included a link to a paper that advocates for $350,767 for every black person in the U.S. Johnson advocated for direct cash payments over the next 10 to 20 years.
KEY BACKGROUND:
Johnson has long been an advocate pf reparations. “I’m not new to this challenge.” He said he’s not advocating “more bureaucratic programs that don’t deliver and don’t perform,” adding “I’m talking about cash. We are a society based on wealth. That’s the foundation of capitalism.” In November of 2019, Leaders of the New Jersey’s Legislative Black Caucus introduced a bill that would establish a Reparations Task Force, which would aim to research the history of slavery within the state, any racial discrimination that stemmed from it, and how the state could help make up for it. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year, 63% of Americans believe the legacy of slavery affects the position of black people in American society today either “a great deal or a fair amount.”
When questioned in the past why BET wasn’t used for more activist and educational purposes, Johnson usually replied that it was an entertainment channel. In 2015, long after the network had been sold, Johnson told The Wrap, “BET was created to distribute entertainment content and the record companies made entertainment-related music videos. What people were seeing was the expression of talented artists from A to Z, that wanted to speak to their audience.”
When Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion, it made him the country’s first Black billionaire. Many complained that BET should have stayed in “Black hands.”
So this new push for reparations is sure to change the perception of Johnson, who has unveiled this proposal while the U.S. is dealing with nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In his proposal, Johnson calls for the U.S. to pay $14 trillion to the Black descendants of the slave trade. This is not just for past sins, but to cause this country “to live up to what was once called American exceptionalism,” Johnson said a press release.
In his statement, Johnson says, “Is $14 trillion too much to ask for the atonement of 200-plus years of brutal slavery, de facto and de jure government-sponsored social and economic discrimination and the permanent emotional trauma inflicted upon Black Americans by being forced to believe in a hypocritical and unfulfilled pledge that ‘all men are created equal’?”