On Wednesday, BET founder Robert Johnson went on Fox News to give his two-cents on the recent Black Lives Matter protests happening across the U.S. and the world. A focal point of his time on the segment was the removal of confederate statues and other racist monuments, which Johnson declared a waste of time.
Johnson essentially argued that statue removal is a ploy for white protestors to feel good about themselves that doesn’t actually offer any material benefits to the black people they claim to be fighting for. “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,” he said, “It absolutely means nothing.”
Johnson also claimed that statue removals are merely a way for white people to “assuage their guilt” and urged them to “ask us what we think first,” calling these protestors “borderline anarchists” and adding “frankly, black people don't give a damn.”
"It's not going to close the wealth gap," he emphasized. "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.”
What do you think? Are statue removals an important sign of social progress, or merely a distraction from more important issues?