Dr. Umar Johnson Says Black Folks ‘Love Status Symbols’

Dr. Umar Johnson offers a money lesson for Black folks amid the persisting racial wealth gap.

On March 28, the Pan-African psychologist and activist appeared in Episode 2 of Kickin It with the OGs on the HoneyDrip Network. He sat down with Aristotle Varner Jr., an Atlanta-based serial entrepreneur and stock investor, to weigh in on generational wealth, empowering youth and nation-building.

“One of the best things we could do for our children is to liberate them from compulsive spending and need to have in order to feel like somebody,” the school psychologist said.

During the nearly three-hour interview, Dr. Umar steered the conversation toward buying new cars. He claimed that Black folks are so eager to purchase luxury cars but lack generational wealth.

“We buy three times the amount of Mercedes Benzes as Caucasians, and we don’t have one-third of the wealth,” Dr. Umar declared.

For this, Dr. Umar calls out the Black community for loving status symbols and needing to prove themselves.

“We love to look rich even if we are not,” the educator said. “That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t buy a new car until my 1995 GMC Jimmy died on 95 South.”

Some viewers agreed with Dr. Umar’s message, with one saying that the “hustle/flashy mentality is born from depravity.”

Dr. Umar once cited “slavery” as the reason why Black people do not have a desire to build their own communities.

In 2021, Dr. Umar claimed that the school he established, called Frederick Douglass Marcus Garvey (FDMG) Academy, was behind because he couldn’t get Black folks to work for free.

“I haven’t come across Black folks who are willing to donate their time … so we have to raise enough money to pay market rate for those repairs,” he said during an interview on The Breakfast Club morning radio show.

“Our whole orientation towards life is different from other groups as a result of slavery,” he added.

Black consumers account for spending nearly $2 trillion annually.

While Black consumers have an estimated $1.6 trillion in spending power, they still lag behind other groups in terms of financial literacy and wealth.

According to a 2023 RAND study, white Americans are 28 times more likely to become millionaires and hold ten times more total wealth than Black Americans.

“It would take $7.5 trillion to halve the Black-White wealth gap and $15 trillion to eliminate it,” the study found.

What do you think about Dr. Umar’s money lesson?