Dr. Umar Johnson is looking for the person or people who called the police on him while he was waiting to take a flight to Europe.
The popular Black pan-Africanist was streaming live on Instagram at the terminal gate for his flight to Amsterdam, talking to his over 1 million followers, when he was approached by two members of law enforcement, which interrupted his “stream of consciousness.”
According to Dr. Umar, this was the first time this had ever happened to him.
He said to his fan base, “The Black Party is back,” but before he could continue, officers stepped up.
Like a shark, he snapped and asked the officers, “How we doing?”
The cop asked, “Everything good?”
“Yeah, what’s going on?” he asked, never flinching and shifting his energy just in case things went left.
The officer told Dr. Umar that they had received a call from someone inside the airport about a Black man in a plaid shirt talking to himself like he might have been in a mental health crisis, and it made them feel uncomfortable.
“Me?” the Philadelphia native asked before laughing — knowing his followers were watching everything as it transpired live on social media.
As the officers continued to explain their wellness check, he said, “I’m Dr. Umar Johnson. I’m just waiting on my flight to Amsterdam. It wasn’t me. I’m good.”
Not letting it go, he asked the officers, “They sent y’all to me specifically?”
“Nah, they said a Black man in a plaid shirt… might have been talking to themselves,” he continued before the Frederick Douglass Marcus Garvey Academy founder said, “Oh, nah, I’m a psychologist. I’m perfectly sane.”
The officers said that they were “just doing” their jobs and checking to see if there was a crisis at the gate.
Dr. Umar told his audience: “They sent the police. Two fully uniformed white power struck … They sent the police to the Prince of Pan-Africanism. And I’m talking about spirituality. See, brothers and sisters, did y’all see what just happened? They said they got a call that a Black man in a plaid shirt was talking to himself. Lord have mercy!”
Someone called the cops on Dr Umar 😭 pic.twitter.com/43fJAyUOY5
— No Context Dr.Umar (PARODY ACCOUNT) (@nocontextdrumar) July 27, 2024
The activist looked directly into the camera and asked who sent the officers to him, wondering if there were an actual white person who called the police on him.
It’s Onsite posted the clip on its Instagram page, and many people weighed in on the incident.
One person wrote, “Damn, it’s illegal to talk to yoself now.” Another person added, “So they’ve never seen people vlog in person?”
One asked, “So all a black man have to do is wear a plaid shirt and talk to himself peacefully to be a threat.”
Another X user explained how this is all too common for many Black men and women.
“That’s the oldest trick in the book. It is a signal that people think you don’t belong in a space,” they wrote. “I was walking through a space on my way home on a Sunday after have a meeting at an academic center. I looked up and noticed a police car trailing me on the road. I was on a walking path. I ignored it and continued to walk. The police car pulled off the road onto the path blocking me from going further. The officer told me that someone had reported a ‘Black male walking erratically on the road.’”’ He asked if I was the person. I said you have been observing me for at least two minutes on the walking trail not the road. Do I seem erratic? He asked for my identification and ran it through the database. He then told me to get home safely. I told him I hope you find the nonexistent Black man walking erratically. I went on my way.”
Someone else said, “Even if he was sitting there talking to himself, wtf is it to them? Yt people gotta learn to mind their fcking business. It’s free as hell to do!”
“Outta all the black people in that airport, yall picked the right n—ga on the right day,” someone else wrote.
Another X user chimed in, writing, “No one is immune to this system of white supremacy. They called the police on you because someone doesn’t like the presence of black people.”
A certified school psychologist who earned his doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Umar took what could have been a nasty situation and de-escalated it.
Many on social media reveled in how he was able to comically use the incident to stress his message about how people discriminate against Black and brown people out of fear or because they don’t like his pro-Black message.
The video did not show any resolution or actually depict the officers leaving. It is not clear if Dr. Umar complained about being profiled outside of addressing his followers.
