VICE: "America's First Black Billionaire Wants His Reparations Check, Now"

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. https://t.co/mBRxV3cNk8

— VICE News (@VICENews) June 29, 2021

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and America’s first Black billionaire, wants a check. He wants it from the government. And he wants it to come with an apology for slavery, Jim Crow, and hundreds of years of racism.

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. He doubts that check will ever come, but he sees a new kind of reparations -- being called by a different name so as not be "divisive" or “controversial" -- happening already.

[...] "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," Johnson says.