Dr. Umar Johnson is a Child Psychologist, Educator, and Pan Africanist. Through his scholarly arguments and reasoned points of view, Dr. Umar has sparked various global debates.
The 46-year-old African- American was born on 21 August in North Central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. His father, Jamal, was a drill instructor in the United States Marines Corps. Little is known about his mother, Barbra.
He traces his origin back to his four times great grandfather, Stephen Bailey, who happened to be Fredrick Douglas’s cousin. Dr. Umar’s three times grandfather, George Washington Bailey, was the first black public school teacher on Eastern Shore, Maryland.
Education
Dr. Umar did his early schooling in North Carolina before he came back to Philadelphia for his mid-elementary school, where he says the love for self and knowledge was inculcated in him during his fourth and fifth grade.
In 1997, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science, from Millersville University, Pennsylvania.
He came back to Millersville University for his graduate studies in January 1998 and graduated with a Masters in School Psychology from the institution on 19 August 2000.
He continued on to Lehigh University, Bethlehem, where he got another Master’s degree in Education Leadership. Subsequently, he got a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania certification as a school principal.
In July 2012, Umar was awarded his Doctorate degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in a program approved by the American Psychological Association.
Career and undertakings
Dr. Umar has been a school psychologist for the better part of his career, where he diagnoses students that require special education. Most of his criticism of poor diagnostics by psychologists has arisen from his expertise in this area.
He has also been a school principal, an expert in due process cases on special education, and part of the standardization team for many of the most popular IQ and achievements tests currently in the market.
In addition, he is a vocal activist in his day to day life with a careful choice of words he puts out to the public, which gives him a firm base when put in a tight corner.
He is also the founder and president of the National Independent Black Parent Association (NIBPA), and a tour dubbed ‘Unapologetically Afrikan Black College and Consciousness Tour.’
The Prince of Pan-Africanism has also authored a book titled ‘Psycho-Academic Holocaust: The Special Education and ADHD Wars Against Black Boys.’
Lastly, among his long-term goal is to build America’s first independent African school to be named Fredric Douglas and Marcus Garvey (FDMG) Academy. The fundraising for the school is underway.
View on Special Education
Dr. Umar Johnson has offered great criticism to special education owing to the fact that he diagnoses African-American and Latino children to ascertain whether they need special education.
He has termed special education as a “financial machine.” He says that schools misdiagnose children because of the economic stimulus package for the school.
Moreover, Dr. Umar firmly states that African- American boys are more likely to be diagnosed or given higher medicine prescriptions as opposed to their fellow European boys.
Criticism against prescriptions for ADHD.
As a psychologist, Dr. Umar says that there is no drug for Attention Deficit, yet doctors prescribe drugs to children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
He also heavily criticizes Ritalin, a stimulant drug used to increase the ability to pay attention, stay focused on an activity, and control behavior problems. He says that the drug is “one molecule away from cocaine (crack).”
He terms the use of the drug as hypocrisy since several African-Americans are arrested and given a lengthy jail term for the use of the drug, and the same drug is then taken to the lab, renamed Ritalin, and then given to their sons with ADHD to calm them down.
Pan-Africanism.
He describes himself as a pan-Africanist and bases his arguments on the three pillars of Pan-Africanism as his premises. The pillars, according to Dr. Umar, are:
- All Africans, regardless of culture, skin, color, or nationality, are one family.
- Identifying with the African family before identifying with any other allegiance.
- ‘As Africa goes, so shall we go’ – which means Africa, with the help of native Africans and African- Americans, must first improve herself in order to help all Africans.
He detests any deviations from these three pillars of Pan-Africanism. He says that no matter the achievement of the person, provided he/she goes against the three pillars, he deserves criticism from Pan-Africanists.
Nationalist and Integrationist
Dr. Umar Johnson uses Fredrick Douglas, an integrationist and his relative, as a standard that he compares himself to.
At the same time, He holds high regard for Marcus Garvey, a nationalist, whom he describes as “the only black leader who never took a dollar from another person.” He was the only young member when he joined the Garvey Movement after college, a platform that helped improve his activism.
He believes that subscribing to the two contradicting schools of thought, nationalist and integrationist, ensures that he can cover all political dimensions in his activism.
LGBTQ
His great criticism against LGBTQ has put him in a cold war between himself and the LGBTQ community. He blames the sexual orientation of the community as a psychological condition resulting from childhood experiences.
To solidify his claims, he says the American Psychiatric Association classified such sexual orientation as a psychological condition but later removed it from the list in 1974 on no biological basis. He says the move was to overshadow the Black Civil Rights Movement.
At one point in time, he said, “You cannot equate the gay struggle with the black struggle…LGBT movement is a movement to practice certain behavior, the black struggle is a struggle to be treated like a human being.”
However, he loves all Africans regardless of their persuasions but reserves the right not to advocate for behaviors that he feels are not in the best interest of his people.
Interracial Marriage
His stand against interracial marriage makes him a maverick. He says that any black man who is with a woman who is not black is going to have a difficult time gaining his respect.
Dr. Umar Johnson sympathizes with black women saying they are the last to get married and the first to get divorced. His mantra is to save black people to save black families.
When asked if he had criticism for Marcus Garvey, who married a white, he replied that despite Garvey’s great strides in fighting for the blacks, the fact that he married a white lady contradicted the Pan-Africanism principles.
Suggestions
Dr. Umar Johnson suggests the below ways to mitigate the current problems present in African-American society:
Recruiting more black and Latino male teachers. Some male children lack a father figure in their lives, and the male teachers will bring in the masculinity the children require. He says this is made difficult by the fact that the American education system is run by ladies.
He also suggests the audit of all children in special education in America by independent psychologists so as to eradicate the fraudulent diagnosis.
Lastly, he sees it fit that the industrial building traits, which were scrapped off in 1970, be brought back in every predominantly black and Latino neighborhood high schools.
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