The founder of Black Entertainment Television Robert Johnson wants the U.S. government to spend $14 trillion for reparations for slavery, which he says will help reduce racial inequality.
During a Monday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Johnson said a “wealth transfer” is needed to help bridge inequality between blacks and whites.
“Now is the time to go big,” he said, adding that the wealth divide and police brutality against blacks is what George Floyd protests are all about. Protests have erupted nationwide after a black man was killed by a white police officer.
“Wealth transfer is what’s needed,” he 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.”
Johnson said reparations are the “affirmative action program of all time.” He said his push for reparations is not in light of the George Floyd incident. He said his call for reparations has been on his website since last year.
The topic has been discussed by Congress. In June 2019, President Donald Trump said he "doesn't see" the topic of reparations paid to descendants of slaves being pursued by the government.
Johnson said reparations would send the message that white Americans recognize “damages that are owed” for the unequal playing field created by slavery and the years since with a “wealth transfer to white Americans away from African Americans.”
He said he doesn’t want to see “more bureaucratic programs that don’t deliver and don’t perform.”
“I’m talking about cash,” he said. “We are a society based on wealth. That’s the foundation of capitalism.”
He said the reparation money would result in more black-owned businesses and would help fuel the economy.
Later on the program, Merck Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier, who is black, said he doubts reparations are even a possibility.
“I don’t believe we’ll be able to get anything like that through our political system,” he said.
But, he said, business leaders can play a part in helping to provide opportunities.
“We as business leaders can step up and solve many of these economic problems for people,” Frazier added, saying that education, especially financial literacy, is the “great equalizer.”
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