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Robert Johnson called for Black Lives Matter to establish their own political party.
The 74-year-old billionaire said that the movement is the strongest he’s seen since the Civil Rights Movement.
READ MORE: BET founder Bob Johnson wants US to pay $14T in reparations for slavery
In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC, Johnson advocated for a new political party, Johnson said, “No minority group has ever achieved significant power in a two-party system when they are locked into one party and considered unreachable by the other party.”
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Johnson, who is a firm advocate for reparations said, “I propose that an independent party formed by Black Lives Matter should echo the founding principles of the original Congressional Black Caucus members in 1971 who … said Black Americans should have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.”
Johnson told Squawk Box that while he is a lifelong Democrat, he remains undecided between voting for President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
“(Trump) took on one of the biggest issues facing African Americans — unemployment, and therefore lack of income and therefore the wealth gap.”
He continued, “He addressed that and put a lot of African Americans to work and in a way that was more historic than it’s ever been. And I applauded him.”
“I’ve been convinced for a long time that 40 million African Americans who tend to vote as a bloc in one of the two parties limit their leverage in getting action form both parties,” Johnson said.
“Had African American interests been embraced by one or two of the dominant parties,” He offered, “we wouldn’t have the tremendous social, economic, racial issues that we have now.”
Johnson said that the Black vote has been taken for granted by the Democratic Party, an idea which has been echoed by Black celebrities like Diddy.
The Hip-Hop entrepreneur has worked with voter registration and getting out to vote for over twenty years. He also believes that the party takes the Black vote “hostage,” and declared by tweeting, “The Black Vote Won’t Be Free This Year!”
THE BLACK VOTE WILL NOT BE FREE THIS YEAR.
— Diddy (@Diddy) April 29, 2020
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