For almost a month now, black and mainstream media outlets, including blogs and news sites, have been reporting on the allegedly awesome and ambitious story of Dr. Umar Johnson and his plan to raise money for an all-black residential academy for boys.
On paper the plan is seductive: As reported in Black Enterprise under its Be Smart > Education section, Dr. Johnson, a so-called noted psychologist with a long history of working with young black children in the Philadelphia public school system, is looking to raise five million dollars through the black community to purchase St. Paul University, the now defunct HBCU in Lawrence, Virginia. As the black business magazine reports, his plans are to rename the facility the Frederick Douglass (who Johnson touts as a great relative on his personal website) and Marcus Garvey RBG International Leadership Academy for Black Boys. And its curriculum will focus on preparing “students for self-employment and entrepreneurship, not merely acceptance into college.”
The education website Diverse Education delves further into Dr. Johnson’s story, adding that the “self-professed Black nationalist” and controversial speaker has been given a deadline of August 21 to raise the capital for the purchase of the campus, which has 35 buildings. And while it is unclear how much of that he has already raised, Diverse Education quotes Dr. Johnson as saying, “donations have steadily been pouring in through an online fundraising drive,” donations that are currently being accepted through his website.
Yes, on paper, particularly the cover, the plan sounds absolutely wonderful. However, when you begin to peel back the flap and delve into the pages, Dr. Johnson as a whole reads a little less impressive, specifically when it comes to his beliefs about homosexuality and gender. And that is kind of important considering that he wants to head an all-male academy of impressionable young boys.
For one, there are his thoughts on homosexuals, which he speaks on regularly in interviews, his speeches and in presentations that he gives across the country, including in public schools. More specifically, in a KTL Radio interview from 2011, Dr. Johnson attributes the gay rights movement to some sort of massive conspiracy by some unnamed culprit (I’m assuming he means the ever-elusive “white man”), to destroy the black community through population control. I kid you not.
He follows up this theory in December 2012 in another interview with YouTube user, Hebrew Truth & Consequences. Dr. Johnson says, in his professional opinion, that “there is something different in the mindset and physiological environment of somebody, who is homosexual and lesbian.” In the same interview, the good doctor, who also claims he “treats” homosexuality and lesbianism, notes that homosexuality was listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the DSM, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association, as a mental disorder up until 1973. This is interesting considering that the field of psychology also once claimed that Drapetomania, a “condition,” which caused enslaved blacks to run away from their masters, was a mental illness and used to lock tons of women away in asylums for female hysteria. With that being said, you’ll have to pardon me if what the field used to historically believe was mentally ill, doesn’t quite move me to the right.
Dr. Johnson’s conspiracy theories don’t end there, as he also notes in another interview:
“The Rockefeller World Population Council and Planned Parenthood International, the same Planned Parenthood that is giving black women abortions all across America is also the same Planned Parenthood, who has also contributed to the brainstorming and think tanking that went into using homosexuality as a population control strategy in the black community…”
And somebody actually gave this dude a doctorate. Actually, who did give him a doctorate? Can we have its accreditation pulled?
But “Dr.” Johnson is not done with his dissertation on the root causes of homosexuality and introduces another layer to the conspiracy: The always destructive (and usually suspected) black single mothers, who according to this article from a few months ago on Naturally Moi, the good doctor believes “psychologically castrate” their sons with their and then wonder why they turn gay later on.
Dr. Johnson, who is an unmarried father of two, has more advice for the fairer sex, which he delivered in a lecture entitled “For Sisters Only” earlier this year. In the video, which is also posted on YouTube, the supposed clinical psychologist told a Brooklyn-based classroom full of adult black women that a black woman’s vag*na “is the back root to her unconscious mind” and that women who desire wild sex have mental issues. More specifically on that point, he says the following:
“The more violent you are during sex, the greater the likelihood your unconscious issues are not dealt with. Yes!!!! Women who scream more, want to be beat on, women who want the man to engage them as if it was a rape…I met one brother the other day, who was like, ‘Brother Umar, help me out. I was making love to this sister and she was bad. And then she just started talking in another language and grabbing stuff and punching me in the back… And I was like, ‘Damn. Are you a woman or a man…’ Unconscious energy. If you want all of that, it is because you got issues…”
Or it is possible that you just like “freaky” sex, including role playing and S&M and that you just had an orgasm? But these ol’ Mistas-from-the-Color-Purple-acting dudes don’t want to know anything about making that kitten purr – they just want lay on a girl and do their business.
There are several more examples of Dr. Johnson’s homophobic and misogynistic views on YouTube, if you are so inclined and have the patience to listen to it. Honestly, I have heard enough of Dr. Johnson over the years for me to personally come to the conclusion that he doesn’t have any business around the next generation of young men and women. But more importantly, the fact that few if any of these media outlets (as well as the University board of Trustees) ran the story of Dr. Johnson’s bid for St. Paul University without giving real context to any of his controversial beliefs is extremely troubling and downright neglectful.
Now that you know a little more about Dr. Johnson, what are your thoughts on his bid and the prospect of him opening a boy’s academy?
