BET Founder Robert Johnson pushes for $14 trillion reparations for slavery

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, said the U.S. government should provide $14 trillion of reparations for slavery to help reduce racial inequality.

“Now is the time to go big” to keep America from dividing into two separate and unequal societies, Johnson said on Squawk Box.

“Wealth transfer is what’s needed,” he argued. “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.”

Johnson made history as America’s first Black billionaire when he sold BET to Viacom in 2001.

Johnson told Vice News the $14 trillion payout would be enough money to close the racial wealth gap. However, he says he’s “not exactly optimistic.”

The figure could equate to roughly $333,400 per person, based on 2019 data from the US Census Bureau that showed there are approximately 41.9 million African Americans in the US.

Calling reparations the “affirmative action program of all time,” Johnson said they would send the signal that white Americans acknowledge “damages that are owed” for the unequal playing field created by slavery and the decades since with a “wealth transfer to white Americans away from African Americans.”

“Damages is a normal factor in a capitalist society for when you have been deprived for certain rights,” he said. “If this money goes into pockets like the [coronavirus] stimulus checks … that money is going to return back to the economy” in the form of consumption. There will also be more black-owned businesses, he added.

Robert Johnson said the need for reparations has been on his website since last year.

“I’m not new to this challenge.” He said he’s not advocating “more bureaucratic programs that don’t deliver and don’t perform.” He stressed, “I’m talking about cash. We are a society based on wealth. That’s the foundation of capitalism.”