Dr Umar Johnson: In Defense of Credentials or Character?

"P.O.P.A Comic & Action Figure Psychologist By Day,
Protecting the Black Community By Night,
Sidestepping Haters..." -Dr. Umar Johnson
(Twitter: July 1, 2015)

   One of the perspectives I love most about my culture [of the Five Percent] is that we have NO LEADERS. We teach leadership, collectively, and that people should only follow to the extent of learning to lead. This perspective has enabled us to successfully avoid the religious trappings of being easily led or becoming cogs in a hierarchical machine. So waaaaaaaay before the inception of a so-called "conscious community", many of us were already immunized against the manipulative bulls*it we see today. 

   When it comes to the so-called "conscious community", there's not one figure head within that community who hasn't been exposed for having clay feet. From Natural Tehuti to General Seti, to Brother Polight and most recently Dr. Umar Johnson, it has shown me that people in general are still looking for someone to lead, not learn to lead themselves. Some people have argued and still argue that clay feet proves that we are all human and none of us are beyond reproach. I understand reproach because there is always going to be someone who will express disapproval or disappointment in us, even if that disappointment is because we got them the wrong Starbucks coffee. So yes, none of us are beyond reproach and that's just a part of life. I don't agree that we are all human. Some of us are Egomaniacs; text book Narcissists striving to make a living off of people's overtime. One important thing some don't understand about my background is having an Ole Earth that was a Social Psychologist gave me a unique analytical lens to view things. I grew up in a household with a DSM-IV where psychological and sociological terms like transference, OCD, self mutilation [self-injury] the Hawthorne effect and etc. were common language my family used to communicate in. My Ole Dad was sharp too and taught us about African cultures and he collected African artifacts. Both were a part of the Black Panthers and I realized once I got to college that one of the family games we often played was really THIS psychoanalytic book. I mention this for the purpose of pointing out where my perspective is coming from. It doesn't mean that I'm the smartest rat in the barn or that my assessment is the only authentic one. What it does mean is that this perspective isn't emotionally charged, topical or on some hater sh*t. Check it out:

1. When Dr. Umar was publicly exposed for having a secret relationship with the blonde weave-wearing "Conscious Stripper" Khym Ringgold, instead of taking responsibility for his actions he called her "a maggot in life" and blamed her for causing him to lose a million-dollar donation for his boys academy from some unnamed NBA player. Not only that, it's hypocritical to do this on the low while publicly condemning black women in lectures about their sexual behaviors and wearing unnatural hair. How he approached and responded to this situation taught me volumes about his character. If he would have been humble, upfront and responsible for what he chose to do I think many people would have looked at him differently. This and various other incidents show that he doesn't have a record of taking responsibility for his actions, it's always somebody else's fault, and he is somehow the victim. I'd bet my right arm, which includes my writing hand, that you cannot find one tweet, Facebook or Instagram post or Youtube video where Dr. Umar Johnson specifically apologizes for something that he did WITHOUT mentioning the names or actions of someone else. 

2. Where is any evidence of the school he is supposedly building? Even though this has been an initiative he has promoted and received upfront donations for over the last three to four years, he has not shown one single thread of evidence to prove its development. When questioned about those donations he has publicly berated people for even asking about it and to this day has not produced any financial records to prove what he's done, if anything, with those donations. Again, this lack of transparency and how he approached and responded to this situation taught me volumes about his character. 

3. He lied about not being informed upfront about being included in the Hidden Colors documentaries. Dr. Umar publicly stated that Tariq Nasheed didn't tell him the name of the documentary and only found out that he was in it after receiving a phone call from a brother who was watching its screening in New York. Nasheed published the actual email correspondences via his Instagram page to prove otherwise.

4. When I saw Dr. Umar lecture in Buffalo, NY he not only gave out his personal phone number to the entire audience but he personally accepted donations and told people to write down their personal information of a sheet of paper so he knew who the donation was from. He was handling the money personally, he had no one assisting him and there was no receipt book for those who donated. Some people he actually told them to write their name and address on a piece of scrap paper. This was not only unprofessional but an oversight disaster waiting to happen. Even people running for unpaid school board seats know that it's inappropriate to handle campaign finances personally; they run the risk of commingling funds or potential fraud. In any campaign, someone must be a designated Treasurer and all donations must be digitally tracked/recorded to insure complete transparency. For those campaigning for public office, these records become Financial Disclosure Reports that anyone in the world can access online. In fact, when I ran for County Legislator in 2013, here are a record of mine: Saladin Financial Disclosure Reports. Although Dr. Umar isn't running for public office, the standard of disclosure, oversight and professionalism is the same regardless of the domain. The fact that he wasn't professionally operating like that then, and even today, confirmed a few things for me: He wasn't/isn't listening to financial or campaign professionals or he didn't/doesn't have any financial or campaign professionals on his team. 

5. Speaking of Umar not having a team, it was also clear to me that he didn't have a Think Tank; a serious issue many of us often overlook. For some years now I've been consulting other public figures behind the scenes on how to best engage the public and respond to situations. For example, I advised someone on strength-based approaches with their team such as using the word "appraisal" as opposed to "evaluation" when it came to assessing their work. Many of us don't seriously consider or invest in this kind of professional support. If we do consult with folks it's usually just our family, friends or other people who, although they may be much appreciated and well meaning, do not do this professionally. We need that support and professional Think Tanks. When Umar was asked why doesn't he have a team at the lecture I attended he shared that this was one of the many downfalls of some of our organizations such as the UNIA, "the more people you have involved it increases the opportunities to have government agents in your organization." Although I agree that this has occurred and still occurs today, I also agree that the Self-Made Man and Self-Made Woman is a myth that keeps people collectively impotent. From the problematic results of his philosophy on not having a team I will that he now considers the importance of having the genuine support in areas he is not professionally skilled in. 

6. The last thing I want to speak on are this URL Battle Rap-like beefs. One thing I noticed is whenever there's some kind of beef inside or outside of the conscious community, the lower men go to insult each other those insults always reference the degradation of women such as b*tch, b*tch *ss n*gga, p*ssy, batty boy, homo, letting dudes play with your booty hole, hoe *ss n*gga, moist, f*ggot *ss, swirling and etc. Most recently its been Dr. Umar and Tariq Nasheed insulting each other like this. I find this interesting because these are oftentimes the same black men who claim to exalt black women. I think this behavior speaks to a deeper often overlooked psychological issue many of us are still dealing with that bubbles to surface when conflicts like this occur. It suggests that in our anger and impassioned defense of what we believe to be true, what we find most insulting, weak, abhorrent and contemptible about each other as men has everything to do with women. That is worth considering.

With all of this being said, I think that Dr. Umar is skilled in his area of expertise and is passionate about what he speaks. His skills are necessary! When it comes to professionalism, the proper handling of people, leadership in regards to management and delegating responsibilities, financial literacy and self assessment, he needs a lot of work in those areas. Whether the school he plans to build is private or not, professionalism, the proper handling of people, leadership in regards to management and delegating responsibilities, financial literacy and self assessment are all vital attributes that an Educator/Administrator should have. These attributes are what enable us to not only build and maintain institutions but also build the trustworthy relationships and confidence parents and communities need in us to genuinely work with the children. Many of the things Dr. Umar has done and continues to do betrays that trust or makes parents and communities not confident in his ability to lead. Not because they're coons or scared of the white man, it's just hard for some parents to see their son walking through the doors of a future school and being safe with someone like Dr. Umar at its helm. As an educator myself there are times I would like to say a lot of things publicly yet it's not in the best interest of my students, families or community as a whole. In the Five Percent we call that power of decorum "refinement."

For me it's never been about credentials, it's always been about character with Dr. Umar. That character includes being transparent, professional and making his word his bond about what he says he's doing. When you're accepting advance money or other resources from people simply based upon an idea you have, you owe it to them to be transparent and it make's it that much more important to be professional and a person of your word. I've known authors who have accepted advance money from people for a future book who now have a bad business reputation because they either sent the book months after its release date or had poor customer service or shipping issues. I never wanted to be in a position like that so I always vowed to not accept anything upfront that people would not get an immediate return on. This talk about character is not an individual standard I exclusively have for Dr. Umar, it's a cultural norm I live by as a Five Percenter and the lens I view myself and anyone else through. All of us have work to do in regards to intrapersonal development. Yet that intrapersonal development is ultimately for interpersonal development. It is our critique of each other in this developmental process, not criticism, that helps empower our growth. 

Peace,
Saladin

The Status Quo

By Allah Universal Lord Life Justice Shabazz

I read your build, "Pike Dream" God. I found my persons mentally stimulated and would like to add on to some of the comments made within. I particularly thought it astute of you to point out the sociopolitical agenda of those who keep the status quo, the Freemasons. We as original people need to be conscious of the fact that we are a society or culture within the inside of a much larger culture. Unlike other people who came to America from other countries to apply for citizenship, most of our people here were abducted from our homeland and enslaved. This is a point to pay close attention to, for where the immigrant petitions for citizenship, we did not. Whereas a newly American citizen decides which parts of his previous culture-turned-subculture will remain in his/her life as an American. Our culture was obliterated and has to be recaptured through active research and development. But in both cases, to call yourself American means that you pledge allegiance and incorporate yourself into the American culture.

 

A lot of us think that we are sort of a huge population in America being unfairly treated. That is not true. Though we may not be treated fairly as Americans, we are not a huge population within the American fabric. Our numbers represent about 15-18% of the American population. That's like a hunk of pepper buried in a salt shaker at the bottom. It will be some time to attempt to uplift that unit to the top of the shaker and it will not happen evenly when or if it does. When we talk of the American phenomena, ratios being somewhat consistant, we were 19,000,000 original people to 103,000,000 Whites in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's consensus of 1933. Yes, I know we are in a ratio of 11:1 or 4,400,000 Blacks to 400,000 in that same consensus around the world --but our conscious community seems to loose tract of the fact that our American numbers are very disproportionate to Whites. We are not in the majority in America. If this were so, the status quo would be in favor of us, simply because that would be in favor of majority interests. To this day, there is even issues between Black and White lodges within America (those who would like to investigate further should read, "History and Evolution of Freemasonry" by Delmar Duane Darrah 33', The Color Line pp.313-323).

 

So from our sheer numbers in America alone, we can only be one of the mainstream's minority issues, like non-White ethnic groups, religious sects (other than White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), the rising issues of sexuality and rights affiliated with these things. We speak about civil and human rights but we petition the courts of their system to have their mainstream society grant smaller sub-cultural groups and communities the rights which are inalienable to the mainstream. America then response in such a way as to give the impression to the world that there is liberty and justice for all in this country--however it is a work in progress. . . Yet for Whites whose ancestors came to America as early colonizers (so called true native Americans or White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), liberty and justice are automatically given as their birth rights. Those clandestine societies who maintain the status quo are there to protect the interest of the majority, while entertaining some of the wishes of its minority to quell civil unrest. And those who are ethnic Freemasons are here in this country because the White working class Masons from England, have allowed them to be. George Washington consecrated the first lodge in America called the Occident Temple No.1. All other lodges are beholden to that lodge. Even the Prince Hall Masons. Prince Hall, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen received their charter initially from England.  So they are beholden to uphold the status quo in America, not Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, Central Asia or so-called Africa. Their National Treasure is in America. Although they are secret societies and we will never know how the lodges truly feel publically about our liberation and the changing of their policies, status quo or keeping things as they always were--we know America's policies come first and are the primary concern of any Masonic lodge in America beyond all else.

Let us also not forget, in Blacks petitioning to be recognized as Americans, we took on America's greatness and America's ills. You can see this at play when you examine the behavior of our grandparents and great, great, great grandparents. Most of them stuck to the policies of the bible, dressed differently than Whites and had practices for rearing their children far different from mainstream America. We even wore different clothes than our fellow White counterparts. We did so because our views were not the same and we were not treated the same--so doing so was a sort of hypocrisy. In the past we held ourselves to a higher Biblical standard. . .

 

In the documentary called 'The Hate That Hate Produced', it is fairly obvious that the Blacks used to flush out information from Black Organizations and hand them over to Mike Wallace of CBS News are nothing but lap dogs for the White media machine in America. In the famous photo of Marcus Garvey riding in that convertible with the plumed hat, the Blackman in that car with the straw "election-like" hat is none other than a secret service man for the United States Government in those days; a person all Garveyites despised because he was a overt agent who attended their meetings and reported their activities.

 

It was never intended for us to belong to such secret organizations, agencies or Masonic lodges, thus it would not be wise to trust in those who have dual allegiances at best. Most of our organizations in the past were sabotaged by those agents who had black skin. This should serve as some example of who you have to watch out for. If we are doing things for the upliftment of ourselves as a people, let us be sure of what cause we are serving. Besides, our knowledge is open and free, is the Freemasons? So how is that just or equal and how can such a relationship be trusted? Protect your neck.

Peace Family,

Allah Universal Lord Life Justice Shabazz