Billionaire speaks out after attacks on Asian Americans

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'I've been completely disenchanted.' Billionaire speaks out after attacks on Asian Americans

New York (CNN Business)Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, is urging America to admit it has a racism problem.

"This unconscious bias and racism is pervasive. It's almost inherent, sadly, in the historic fabric of this country," Soon-Shiong, the founder and executive chairman of biotech company ImmunityBio, told CNN Business in his first public comments about the surge of anti-Asian hostilities.

"We have to recognize that, accept it and then break it."

Soon-Shiong, who is of Chinese descent and was born in South Africa, expressed dismay at the recent spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans as well as the racial tensions that fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I came from South Africa, where I saw [racism] growing up. The difference, in a funny way, is that it was Apartheid, but it was Apartheid in the open," said Soon-Shiong, who moved to the United States in 1977. "I thought we were coming to the land of the free. And frankly, I've been completely disenchanted."

The comments make Soon-Shiong one of the highest-profile Asian business leaders to speak out about the recent attacks on Asian Americans. And he urged more Asian Americans to do the same.

"Unfortunately, the Asian culture and mentality is to just suck it up. Do your work. Do your thing. Be quiet," Soon-Shiong said. "I don't think that can happen any longer."

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