American billionaire Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, demanded to pay African American citizens reparations for hundreds of years of slavery.
The total amount of compensation calculated by the media mogul is 14 billion dollars. According to Johnson, it corresponds to the community’s material losses as a result of forced labor and racial inequality.
“Repairs would require the entire country […] admit that the result of slavery has been 200 years of systemic racism and for that reason blacks have been denied between 13 and 15 trillion dollars of wealth “, He said Johnson in an interview with Vice.
“Therefore, we as a country must now atone by paying blacks of all stripes – rich, poor and middle class – out of pocket,” the billionaire continued.
Johnson also noted that he is working to introduce and promote a tax incentive program totaling $ 30 billion. The proposal is called the Better Opportunities and Results for Socially Disadvantaged Talent (BOOST) Act, the mogul said.
It is not the first time that the billionaire demands to pay reparations for historical racial inequality to the blacks of the USA. Last June, he already called the measure, affirming that the reparation of damages “is a normal factor in a capitalist society when They have deprived you of certain rights “and ensuring that the money distributed in this way will be channeled towards consumption and, in this way,” will return to the economy. “
According Estimates of the US Census Bureau, the black or African American community is made up of about 44 million people. Thus, if Johnson’s proposed awards were approved, each person would receive about $ 320,000.
