Motivational speaker Dr. Umar Johnson did not hold back when addressing the Kevin Hart Roast on Netflix, delivering a breakdown of what he described as a coordinated attack on Black people disguised as comedy.
Speaking with The Art Of Dialogue, Dr. Umar said his phone began flooding with messages the day after Mother’s Day.
“My Instagram inbox blowing up. My WhatsApp, my email, you name it, is blowing up. My Patreon is blowing up,” he said. “I see a clip of a white comedian making a joke of George Floyd’s d*ath. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t comedy. It was racist.”
After receiving word that the George Floyd joke was not the only offensive moment, Dr. Umar said he watched the entire special.
“I spent three hours. It was about 2 hours and 45 minutes. I watched the whole thing from start to finish.”
Turning his attention to comedian Shane Gillis, who hosted the roast, Dr. Umar said he had never heard of him before watching the special. “I never heard of the devil, but I know who he is now,” he said.
Dr. Umar then quoted Gillis opening the show by saying, “I want to thank Netflix for choosing me to co-host this celebration of black excellence,” before criticizing the line himself. “That’s an underhanded jab at black excellence,” he said.
He also brought up a joke involving Sheryl Underwood and her late husband, who died by s**cide.
According to Dr. Umar, Gillis joked, “Sheryl’s husband unalived himself. Obviously, Black does crack because he jumped off an f**king roof.”
Dr. Umar condemned the repeated references, saying, “They repeatedly throughout the whole show made jokes about Sheryl Underwood’s husband’s s*icide to millions of people watching this Netflix special all over the world.”
He continued by quoting another joke from the roast: “The Golden State Warriors logo is a bridge. Don’t show that to Sheryl’s husband.”
Dr. Umar also criticized comments directed at Lizzo, including Gillis allegedly calling her a “fat f**king b**ch” during the show.
“How does a white man call a black woman a b**ch? Two different women on international television on Netflix and not get knocked on his a*s,” Dr. Umar said.
Addressing the George Floyd from Tony Hinchcliffe joke directly, Dr. Umar quoted the line from the roast: “George Floyd is looking up at us and laughing so hard that he can’t breathe.”
He strongly rejected the joke, responding, “You making jokes about black people who were murdered by police? That’s comedy?”
Dr. Umar then claimed the material had been deliberately written to humiliate Black people.
“A group of 17 white men were hired by Netflix to make a night’s worth of racially derogatory, insulting, and humiliating jokes about black people. White men wrote these,” he said.
He went on to connect the roast to what he described as a historical pattern.
“What they’re trying to do is bring back the minstrel show,” Dr. Umar said. “Back from 1830 to 1930, white people would dress up in blackface and they would play ridiculous stereotypical black characters. The minstrel shows were done to justify the mistreatment of blacks, justify the lynching of blacks, justify the slavery of blacks. And guess what? They trying to do it again.”
Calling for action from Black organizations and institutions, Dr. Umar said, “I need the black pastors to send Netflix a letter. I need the Congressional Black Caucus to send Netflix a letter. I need the Divine Nine Black fraternities and sororities to send Netflix a letter. I need the Urban League, the NAACP, and every grassroots black organization.”
