I’ve always had awkward feelings about Dr. Umar Johnson, the ego is overwhelming, the misogyny kills me but I see the appeal he has to many, and he does seem to care on some levels, he does seem to want young black children to do well.

For this reason, many who feel uncomfortable with him still buy into his thing, his talking and outright hoteppery.

BUT sometimes there is a moment of clarity and one man wrote about his experience.

I found Jason Johnson’s article in The Root especially interesting. He talks about being a closet Hotep, about listening to Umar and the other “Conscious Community” hoteps, about finally going to see him and having the A HA moment that he needed to update himself and kick Umar to the curb! Here are a few excerpts from the article published on The Root.

I was more Hotep-adjacent. Hidden beneath my public-Ivy education and functional relationship with my parents lurked a man who would disappear down YouTube click holes of Tariq Nasheed, Professor Griff, ZaZa Ali and, of course, Dr. Umar Johnson. I comfortably conflated the performance of Hotepness with the actual work of black nationalism.

Or, at least, I did until I actually had a chance to see Johnson speak live at a Black History Month panel. That’s when I, like an alcoholic, drug addict or R. Kelly fan, had my moment of clarity and realized that my Hotepness had to stop. There is no space for men like Johnson in any real fight for black liberation, and the sooner black folk collectively kick them to the curb, the better.

I grew up steeped in ’90s black conspiracy culture, which made me highly susceptible to pseudo-nationalist Hotep thinking by the mid-2000s. Crack cocaine pushed into black neighborhoods, President Bill Clinton’s crime bill and eugenics experiments in Baltimore public schools were my reality. Given what was actually happening in America, it wasn’t a big leap to entertain more extreme ideas like HIV/AIDS was a government conspiracy, gangsta rap was a psy-op to destroy the black family and orange soda really did cause sterility in black men.

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“Jason, you know that man is a misogynist and lied about his relationship with a ‘conscious stripper,’ right?” my friend said.

Well, yeah …

“You know that man is a fraud and has been raising money for St. Paul’s without their permission for years and ain’t none of that money gone anywhere but his pockets, right?”

I know, but …

Yet she persisted, pointing out that the man we were going to see is called “Dr.” despite the fact that no one can find his Ph.D. anywhere. Maybe it’s hidden somewhere next to Donald Trump’s tax returns.

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I know real black nationalists and Pan-Africanists, men and women who have fought, bled and been teargassed for the liberation of all black people—not just the ones who fit a certain moral, sexual or political framework. There are many men and women out there delivering the same hard truths as Johnson without the sexism, misogyny, ignorance and false credentials.

It really is an interesting read. Read the whole piece in The Root here.

And, please, let us know what you think!