There is a popular video travelling around the internet of Umar Johnson .
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVhBOcUv4QY ) He is advocating anti Chinese views and race hatred against other races in the name of Black nationalism. He even goes so far as to advocate ending inter racial marriage.
First thing: this is full of outright lies. So let us identify the outright lies: he states that Mandarin is an official language of South Africa – untrue, and that Xhosa and Zulu are not official languages of South Africa – untrue. ( https://southafrica-info.com/arts-culture/11-languages-south-africa/ )
He claims: the Chinese have surplus population that they are seeking to dump somewhere (possibly Jamaica). Actually throughout Chinese history they have never engaged in external colonialism using their own population outside their borders. In any case a consequence of their one child policy is a shortage of labour. He makes absurdist claims about the origins of mankind and the role of pigmentation that seem designed to discredit other legitimate claims by Black scholars.
Lets look at this matter more closely. Firstly, the position of anti racial inter marriage was a key stone of apartheid policies in South Africa. It had never been a policy of the liberation movements in 20th century or of the anti slavery movements of the 19th century. That great liberator Toussaint L’Ouverture did not countenance this.
Further many whites deserted Napoleon’s army to fight and give their lives for the cause of Haitian freedom as did many whites join the ANC and give their lives in that struggle. I mention my friend Ruth First as an example.
Most important is to consider military strategy. So few Black intellectuals have any background in military studies – its appalling. Sometimes I think the average Black American thinks a war is just fighting and bombing. Basically a riot on a grand scale. Given some reports and videos of US war making broadcast on US media one can understand where the idea might come from. War however is not a mere extension of violence. Any understanding of military strategy would involve some appreciation of tactics, terrain and the need for alliances. Viet Nam could not have won against US without its alliance with China and USSR. US and UK needed the alliance with USSR to defeat Germany which was allied to Italy and Japan. Apartheid South Africa would not have been defeated without the ANC and MPLA alliance with Cuba and USSR. Given this context the suggestion that Africans should shun alliances seems suicidal .. and rather stupid
Equally the anti Chinese rhetoric is strange coming from an Black American. He visited Japan and China but has nothing to say about Japan! He declared to racism in US is always covert. Seems that ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement is misguided as open racism does not exist in US. His general discussion seems to suggest that all people all over the world hate Black people. In fact he states this outright. One wonders who fought for the liberation of Angola?
Lets stand aside and ask who had this for an agenda?
- Get Black people to be anti-Chinese? (and ignore Japan)
- Get Black people to believe they are inferior and hated by ALL peoples not just far right Whites.
- Get Black people to become racially separatists ( and so offend their ethnic allies) and stop inter marrying
- Get Black people to reject support from other peoples or other countries.
- Get Black people to turn against their own leaders and blame all economic failure on their ‘selfish’ Black leaders and forget about the international economic order.
This agenda belongs to alt.right and to neo-fascist groups in the West.
Recall the Bell Pottinger scandal in South Africa where a white organisation stoked racial tension claiming to be putting out radical ideas but in fact serving private interests: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/10/bell-pottinger-pr-firm-apologizes-south-africa-campaign
‘
“He and Victoria Geoghegan, a Bell Pottinger partner, met to discuss a campaign which Zuma said should be “along the lines of #EconomicEmancipation or whatever” with a “narrative that grabs the attention of the grassroots population who must identify with it, connect with it and feel united by it”.
Subsequently, Jacob Zuma took to speaking of “white monopoly capital”,… “
That game plan was exposed . Dr Johnson appears to be of the same cloth.
What do we know about FBI informants/agents? These organisations usually identify Black people who have some serious legal issues. They then approach them and make an offer: “These charges will disappear if you cooperate.” There is much in Umar Johnson’s overt life that speaks of ramshackle disorganisation of a sort that would eventually bring him into regulatory conflict and present the opportunity for that knock on the door.
One commentator asked: ‘I hate to believe that Johnson is nothing more than a charlatan dressed in colorful clothing’.
(https://newpittsburghcourier.com/2017/03/05/i-attended-an-umar-johnson-lecture-here-are-my-thoughts/ )
Back to my opening question: Does the FBI pay him?
(Allow my use of ‘FBI’ to cover any organisation behaving the way the old FBI behaved under Hoover.) All I can conclude, and I believe all any reasonable person could conclude, is that if Dr Umar Johnson is not getting paid as an agent/informer then he is much dumber than we thought. He is doing their dirty work for them .. he should at least demand payment.