The Dr. Umar meme collection is derived from the controversial comments and antics of one Dr. Umar Johnson, a Pan-Africanist motivational speaker and author. His views on subjects like hustle culture, interracial relationships, parenting, and Black empowerment have sparked numerous memes including reaction images and videos, lip dubs, and catchphrases.
The online Black community has often taken issue with Johnson’s statements and many have called his proclaimed background, credentials, and even his name into question. His controversial status and wild pronouncements make him especially prone to becoming a meme.
Dr. Umar is best known for making inflammatory statements on social media and during interviews, as well as a number of stand-out incidents that resulted in accusations of hypocrisy and grifting.
On multiple occasions, the alleged child psychologist denounced interracial relationships, claiming that Black people who date outside of their race are engaging in a form of self-hatred. The most notable of these incidents occurred on The Breakfast Club podcast.
In 2015, an exotic dancer by the name of Khym Ringgold accused Johnson of sending her sexually explicit text messages. She shared screenshots of these texts as proof, though she later deleted them. This sparked accusations of hypocrisy against Johnson, who often speaks on the supposed benefits of celibacy.
In 2022, Johnson faced additional hypocrisy accusations after someone filmed him at the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey appearing to flirt with a white woman. He denied that he was coming on to her in a tweet, but that didn’t stop the memes from happening.
He’s also known for the “white man did it in one week” Dr. Umar meme, derived from a rant in which he claimed that he waited three years for a Black man to install an HVAC for him, and when he hired a white man instead, the job was done in the space of a week.
According to rumors, Johnson has two children by women he never married — another detail about his personal life that runs contrary to his stated values. Some reports claim that they are both daughters, while others say he has one daughter and one son: Amina Johnson and Kwame Johnson.
Although some are quick to judge Dr. Umar as Christian or Muslim due to some of his views about sex and relationships, Johnson has expressed that he’s less interested in talking about religious beliefs than their political and social beliefs. In a 2015 interview, he expressed an opinion that the Black community places too much emphasis on religion.
Johnson follows Pan-Africanism, which is a movement aiming to bring together indigenous Africans and those of the African diaspora against slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and racism.
The Breakfast Club incident occurred on June 30, 2017. During the interview led by Charlamagne Tha God, Johnson opined that interracial marriage is unacceptable because it leaves too many Black people, or Black women specifically, unmarried.
“No interracial relationship is acceptable because we have too many black women who are unmarried,” he said.
“Why would a black man need to copulate with, build a family, with anything other than a black woman, when you have so many black women available?”
He later referred to the act of Black people marrying a non-Black person “an exercise in self-hatred.”
Johnson's outrageous statements and dramatic manner of speaking has inspired TikTok users to create a South Park style character for him. The cartoon speaks along to his rants about Black culture and relationships in his image.
@theghettoactivist Who put big brother Umar on South Park? ???? #fyp #theghettoactivist #fba #drumar #umarjohnson ♬ original sound - The Ghetto Activist
On June 2, 2022, Twitter user @Reese_856 posted footage of Johnson at the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey speaking with a white woman. Many took his friendly demeanor toward this young woman as flirting and accused him of hypocrisy due to his previous statements condemning interracial relationships, especially those that leave Black women single.
Johnson addressed the accusations in a tweet on the same day.
"Yes, I was at Cherry Hill Mall today," he wrote. "My iPhone crashed last night and the closest Apple store with an available appointment today was in Jersey. As I was leaving the mall, I stopped at a kiosk to view the incense & crystals. That non-afrikan woman is simply the vendor."
Not a lot of folks believed this version of what happened at the mall, and memes quickly spread using reaction images to reference the incident.
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