America’s first black billionaire said people need to “atone” for the country’s history by paying reparations to the nation’s black population.
“Reparations would require the entire country to … admit that the result of slavery has been 200 years of systemic racism, and for that reason, black folks have been denied $13-$15 trillion of wealth, and therefore, we as a country now must atone by paying black people of all stripes — the rich ones, the poor ones, and the middle — out of our pocket,” said Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television.
Johnson argued current proposals such as critical race theory education, housing grant programs, and the $5 billion of targeted support and debt relief for black farmers are being enacted as a way to sidestep paying true reparations.
WITH REPARATIONS, SHOULD A NATION REMEDY ONE INJUSTICE BY CREATING ANOTHER?
“That’s what’s happening to the reparations — it’s been cut up into small pieces of things that look and feel like, ‘We want to end systemic racism, we want to end police brutality and shootings, and to provide financing to black small-business owners,’” Johnson said. “And then, people can say, ‘Well, we really don’t need reparations because when you put all of these things together, it’s reparations. It’s just not one big bill or asking this country to stand up and apologize, and you’re not asking people to pay out of their paychecks.”
Johnson argued that for there to be true reparations, there would have to be a direct check from the government. Earlier this month, he called for $14 trillion in reparations payments.
“With no doubt whatsoever, it was supposed to come from the government representing the people of the country,” Johnson said. “It was reimbursement, or recompense if you will, for the harm.”
Johnson has made similar remarks before. Last year, he told Fox News that “unless white America recognizes the need for reparations to atone for this, this country will always be, as the Kerner Commission reports it, separate and unequal.”
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A poll last year showed only 20% support the idea of reparations.
