Thread by @VICENews

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of BET and America’s first Black billionaire, is pushing for a $14 trillion reparations proposal. trib.al/VEeMeHp

He wants a check from the government. And he wants it to come with an apology for slavery, Jim Crow, and hundreds of years of racism. It’s due. trib.al/VEeMeHp

“Reparations had two components: The first was atonement, and the other was monetary,” Johnson says. “With no doubt whatsoever, it was supposed to come from the government representing the people of the country. It was reimbursement... for the harm.” trib.al/VEeMeHp

Support for reparations has been bolstered by the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and Black congressional leaders now are pushing for a vote on HR 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. trib.al/VEeMeHp

Much of that education needs to be dedicated to ensuring that reparations is an investment program rather than a charity program, Johnson argues, and that means wealthy and famous Black Americans like himself also should be paid. trib.al/VEeMeHp

The 75-year-old media magnate owns several homes, heads an asset management firm, and was the first Black person to own a majority stake in an NBA team. trib.al/VEeMeHp

It just makes good business sense to put capital in the hands of those who have shown they know how to put it to work, Johnson says, if a government program is to be a successful economic stimulus that repairs Black communities. trib.al/VEeMeHp

That’s why he’s less sanguine about the current state of things: The much-ballyhooed corporate donations and local programs are treated as charity rather than investment, Johnson says, and charity is meant to pacify rather than incentivize. trib.al/VEeMeHp

“If you’re a successful Black business, the idea is you’ve had enough,” Johnson says. But “no one ever asks if [a white-owned business] is too rich to benefit from investing in a football stadium” or receiving benefits like preferential tax treatment. trib.al/VEeMeHp

Johnson says a $14 trillion reparations proposal would provide enough to close the Black/white wealth gap that exists through home ownership, wages, and occupational attainment, among other imbalances. Though he’s not exactly optimistic. trib.al/VEeMeHp

“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,” Johnson says. trib.al/VEeMeHp

“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.” trib.al/VEeMeHp