Umar Johnson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Umar Johnson
|
|
|---|---|
Johnson in 2016
|
|
| Born |
Jermaine Shoemake
August 21, 1974 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|
| Alma mater | Millersville University of Pennsylvania (BA&Sc) Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Psy.D.) |
| Occupation |
|
Umar Rashad Ibn Abdullah-Johnson (born Jermaine Shoemake; August 21, 1974) is an American motivational speaker, psychologist, activist, and social media personality. A pan-Africanist, he is a controversial figure due to his condemnation of homosexuality and interracial marriage.
Early life and education
Johnson is a native of North Philadelphia. His stepmother, Bernice Elizabeth Dockins Abdullah-Johnson, was a preschool teacher and his father had his name changed.
Johnson graduated from Millersville University before graduating in 2012 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine with a Psy.D. in 2012 in clinical psychology.
Career
Book and documentary appearance
In 2011, he was featured on The Untold History of People of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent, directed by Tariq Nasheed. In 2013, Johnson published Psycho-Academic Holocaust: The Special Education & ADHD Wars Against Black Boys, a book in which he contended that ADHD was increasingly misdiagnosed in the Black community and that the education system used ADHD to stigmatize black children. In a 2017 video clip, Johnson asserted that "ADHD does not exist. Neither does the learning disability."
School project
In June 2014, Johnson said he would raise $5 million to buy the former campus of Saint Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Virginia, which had closed down in 2013 due to financial struggles, and rename it to Frederick Douglass Marcus Garvey Academy, which he said would be a boarding school for Black boys. He claimed to have sufficient funds to buy the Saint Paul's site in 2014, but did not do so. In 2015, Johnson claimed that he would open the school the following year; he failed to do so.
Charing Ball, writing in the online magazine MadameNoire, discouraged donations for the project, citing Johnson's "homophobic and misogynistic" commentary in YouTube videos. In 2015, he opened a GoFundMe to raise money to "acquire and rehabilitate" either the former Saint Paul's or Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in Port Gibson, Mississippi. In 2017, The Root criticized Johnson for failing to providing financial documentation demonstrating whether he actually used any of the funds for the school. In April 2017, Johnson founded the National Independent Black Parent Association in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.
Although Johnson claimed to have applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit status in 2015, there was no record of an application with the IRS as of 2017. In 2019, a Root commentator criticized Johnson for never providing a business plan, obtaining a license, publishing receipts, or taking other steps toward construction of the school, despite Johnson's claim in 2017 to have raised $400,000 or $700,000 for the school. In April 2021, Johnson said that construction was complete but that the school was not ready for classes.
