Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
The New
York Times
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May 29, 2000, Monday, Late Edition - Final
NAME: Robert L. Johnson
SECTION: Section A; Page 9; Column
1; National Desk
LENGTH: 930 words
HEADLINE: PUBLIC LIVES;
In the Balance: Maintaining
Pride and Making a Deal
BYLINE: By STEVEN A.
HOLMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
ROBERT L. JOHNSON remembers well a scene from
his early days in cable television. In a bar with a number of cable executives,
he was, as usual, the only black person in the group. An executive, a man Mr.
Johnson had known for years, told a tasteless joke about the Ku Klux Klan and
the miniseries "Roots."
Reminiscing in his office at his company, BET
Holdings Inc., Mr. Johnson's point in retelling the story was not its
questionable humor. It was how as an African-American in the upper echelons of
corporate America he often found himself confronted with a choice. Should he
express his hurt or anger at racial slights? Or should he bury them for the sake
of getting ahead? "Being in business you swallow things that you don't like just
because I'm trying to get this deal," he said. "So, O.K., fine. I'll laugh at
your jokes.
"So sure, you swallow those kinds of things," he continued.
"Sometimes it does go overboard and you've got to decide at what point do you
draw the line, and say this is beyond deal-making; this is beyond trying to sell
your product."
At the bar that day, Mr. Johnson said, he chuckled at the
colleague's joke and told one of his own. If the joke bothered him he wasn't
about to show it.
"I don't internalize a lot of the kind of stuff that
comes at me from the standpoint of white society," he said. "I've adopted a
saying, 'Welcome to the N.F.L.,' " the National Football League. "In the N.F.L.
if you run into the line, you're going to get hit. That's why you put on a
helmet and shoulder pads. If you're a black American, expect to get hit, and
don't start crying when somebody comes up and hits you."
That philosophy
-- keep emotions in check, don't let issues of race get in the way of the deal
-- has helped Mr. Johnson, 54, become one of the country's most successful black
entrepreneurs, indeed one of the most successful business executives of any
race. In the last 20 years he has used his business savvy and his ability to
attract white investors with deep pockets to build Black Entertainment
Television -- and later BET Holdings -- into a entertainment giant worth, he
says, more than $2.5 billion.
He also used his corporate connections to
place himself in the position to become one of the few African-Americans ever to
own a commercial airline. As part of the proposed merger
between United Airlines and US Airways, Mr. Johnson would
acquire a spinoff of US Airways' operations -- including routes, planes and
personnel -- at Reagan National Airport in Washington.
But if Mr.
Johnson has put his ties with corporate chieftains to good use, they too may
have looked to see what they can glean from their friendship with him. It was
Steven Wolfe, the chairman of US Airways, who proposed that Mr. Johnson acquire
the airline's operations in Washington, which will be called DC Air. Several
analysts have hinted that such a move might make the Justice Department
reluctant to block US Airways merger with United since that would also mean
blocking an African-American from acquiring an airline.
Mr. Johnson has
also come in for criticism from some black intellectuals and civil rights
advocates who see him as an African-American business executive who subordinates
racial pride and solidarity to making a dollar.
Intellectuals sometimes
grumble that BET, perhaps the most recognizable African-American brand name
since the days of Motown, is filled with mindless and salacious music videos
rather than meaningful black programming. Mr. Johnson is mercilessly skewered in
the black syndicated comic strip "Boondocks," one of whose characters has
described the cable network as not particularly black and certainly not
entertaining.
To Mr. Johnson, this is all mere carping. He is filling
the market's demands. If the videos he broadcasts did not bring in an audience,
he would put on what people did want to watch.
"See that video right
there," Mr. Johnson said, pointing to the wall of his office where a television
screen showed a BET video of women in skimpy bikinis writhing suggestively. "I
didn't make that video. I had nothing to do with it. I didn't know that video
was being made. They sent it to us because we have a mutually beneficial
relationship. That artist wants to be seen. I want to put on programs.
Somebody's watching that video right now. And because somebody's watching, the
advertiser's going to put some money in it."
He added: "Believe me, if
they send me videos with no nude women, if that's all they made, that's all I'd
play. I don't pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, give me some more bump and
grind.' "
T hat he can easily shrug off the criticism of black people
and the slights of whites is a testament to what Mr. Johnson believes is his
complete comfort and confidence in himself. His background of growing up in
Freeport, Ill., a town that was about 90 percent white, attending the University
of Illinois and Princeton University has made him comfortable dealing with
whites.
Moving between worlds, while at times painful and daunting, is
something he counsels young black people to experience.
"Obviously I
think in a world that's shrinking every day, the smartest thing to do is get as
much exposure as you can," he said. "If you can interact with other people and
other cultures, then do so. Get to know them; get to know how they think; get to
know their value system, their sense of humor; get to know what motivates them
and what intimidates them. The more you know about people, the more comfortable
you can be with them and the more you can communicate with them."
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photo: Robert
L. Johnson of BET Holdings may soon have his own airline. (Susana Raab for The
New York Times)
LOAD-DATE: May 29, 2000
