Morbid Frivolity?

Eliot Brown, "$5 B. Claim Filed Against Jay-Z, Bruce Ratner"

Brooklyn activist Clive Campbell is seeking $5 billion from rapper Jay-Z, developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays bank, filing a "claim of lien" in property records that seeks the money for slavery reparations.

Mr. Ratner, Jay-Z, and Barclays are all linked through the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, for which Mr. Ratner plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets and more than 6,000 apartments. Jay-Z, a partial owner of the Nets, has been a major supporter of the project, appearing at press conferences to tout its merits. Barclays owns the naming rights to the arena, and has been accused of having links with the slave trade—an accusation the bank denies.

In the claim, Mr. Campbell said that Mr. Ratner and Jay-Z worked "in concert" with Barclays, and "profited from the African Slave Trade and continue to profit from these gains, through a conspiracy dating back hundreds of years and continue to date to oppress Black people, enslave them, unlawfully deport them to all corners of the Earth."