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BET founder Robert Johnson blasted the “borderline anarchists” who are toppling and vandalizing historic statues across cities in the nation.
Johnson also challenged the “mistaken assumption” some are making that black Americans are supportive of the destructive actions, contending that they would prefer to see structural changes to better lives than the cancel culture of the mob.
(Source: Fox News)
“Look, the people who are basically tearing down statues, trying to make a statement are basically borderline anarchists, the way I look at it. They really have no agenda other than the idea we’re going to topple a statue,” Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday.
“It’s not going to give a kid whose parents can’t afford college money to go to college. It’s not going to close the labor gap between what white workers are paid and what black workers are paid. And it’s not going to take people off welfare or food stamps,” the Black Entertainment Television founder said.
The billionaire noted that people tearing down statues “have the mistaken assumption that black people are sitting around cheering for them saying ‘Oh, my God, look at these white people. They’re doing something so important to us. They’re taking down the statue of a Civil War general who fought for the South.'”
“You know, black people, in my opinion, black people laugh at white people who do this the same way we laugh at white people who say we got to take off the TV shows,” he added, pointing to the example of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
“I’ll bet you if you go back and look at the Nielsen ratings when ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ was on television, I bet you it had a huge black viewing population,” Johnson said, adding that the “Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom from the 1960s also had a large black audience.
“There’s one thing you can do, research it. Find out,” he said.
“White Americans seem to think that if they just do sort of emotionally or drastic things that black people are going to say, ‘Oh my God, white people love us because they took down a statue of Stonewall Jackson.’ Frankly, black people don’t give a damn,” Johnson added, saying it is nothing more than “an attempt by a white American to assuage guilt by doing things that make them feel good.”
The 74-year-old, who has been a vocal advocate for reparations to descendants of slavery, also slammed the recent decision by HBO Max to pull the Oscar-winning Civil War film “Gone With the Wind” from its library and then return it with a disclaimer.
“What the hell do you need a disclaimer with ‘Gone with the Wind,’ as if black people think that we believe that slavery was like ‘Gone with the Wind’? Who are you trying to convince? White people, you started slavery. If you want to learn about slavery and you want to feel bad about it, just go watch ‘Django,’” the entrepreneur said.
“You know, that to me is the silliest expression of white privilege that exists in this country. The notion that a celebrity could get on a Twitter feed and say, ‘oh, my God, I am so sorry that I am white.’ I don’t find any black people getting on Twitter and saying, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry I’m black.’ And we got the worst problem hand dealt to us of any people in this country,” he said.
“My thing is: embrace being white and do the right thing,” said Johnson, who recently suggested that the Black Lives Matter movement become an official political party, a notion Fox News host Tucker Carlson commented on last week.
Tucker warns, an astounding 62% voters favor BLM, now the most powerful political party in USA https://t.co/wVmeLH7Xp6
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) June 16, 2020
“When I see all of this, changing names, toppling statues, firing professors because they said all lives matter, it just shows to me that white America is continually — still is continually incapable of recognizing that black people have their own ideas and thoughts about what’s in their best interest,” Johnson argued, saying that people need to ask black Americans what it is they really want.
“Give us the belief that you respect our opinion,” he said, pressing the idea that the cancel culture and the toppling of statues is not as meaningful as reparations and attempts to address the nation’s wealth gap.
“To me, what white people are doing, with the idea that they’re making us feel good, is tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on a racial Titanic,” Johnson told Fox News. “It absolutely means nothing.”
While many Twitter users praised Johnson’s take on the toppling of statues and the wave of political correctness, others pointed out that the billionaire’s views are a “mixed bag” with a continued push for reparations.
He makes it sound so simple and like rational common sense for all.
— Taylor Burrowes, PhD (@taylorburrowes) June 25, 2020
But he also wants roughly $13 trillion in reparations. It’s a mixed bag
— the Fuquak (@theFuquak) June 25, 2020
Don’t get too excited. I’m pretty sure this guy has been pushing reparations for a longggg time.
— MAGA Ben 🇺🇸 (@RedPillBen) June 25, 2020
This dude definitely isn’t redpilled, but I’m glad he said what pretty much everyone is silently thinking about all this nonsense.
— Right Side of History (@RightSideofHis9) June 25, 2020
this is the guy tho who wants 100 TRILLION dollar reparations. Don’t let him try to distract you.
— 0xfedbeef (@0xfedbeef) June 25, 2020
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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