‘Dilbert’ Cartoonist Dropped by US Newspapers Over Alleged Racist Comment

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of "Loserthink: How Untrained Minds Are Ruining America," in New York on Nov. 4, 2019. Brendon Fallon/The Epoch Times

Cartoonist, satirist, and political commentator Scott Adam has been canceled over comments he made that some people have alleged to be racist.

On Feb. 23, a day after he made comments on his podcast, “Real Coffee with Scott,” saying that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with black people anymore, multiple liberal media outlets said they would no longer publish his comic strips.

“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the [expletive] away from black people, just get the [expletive] away,” Adams said on his program on Feb. 22.

“Wherever you have to go, just get away, cause there’s no fixing this.”

Adams, 65, made the comments in response to what he said was a “provocative” Rasmussen poll, which asked 1,000 Americans whether they agree or disagree with the statement “It’s OK to be white.”

Of the black Americans who responded, 26 percent said they didn’t think it’s OK to be white, and 21 percent said they weren’t sure.

“Add them together and that’s 47 percent of black respondents [who] were not willing to say [it is] OK to be white,” Adams said of the poll results. “If nearly half of all blacks are not OK with white people—according to this poll, not according to me—according to this poll, that’s a hate group, and I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Among the publications to drop Adams were The Washington Post, San Antonio Express-News, The Press Democrat, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“This is not a difficult decision,” wrote the Plain Dealer’s editor, Chris Quinn. “We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.

“Adams’ reprehensible statements come during Black History Month when The Plain Dealer has been publishing stories about the work being performed by so many to overcome the damage done by racist decisions and policy.”

“Until we decide what to replace Dilbert with, you’ll likely see a gray box where it has been appearing,” Quinn said.

A Dilbert comic seen during a U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, on April 11, 2018. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Adams told The Washington Post he expects that “[b]y Monday, around zero” publications will be publishing his daily comic strip “Dilbert.”

Adams created the satirical comic strip in 1989 about office worker struggles after he left his corporate job because of what he said was “wokeism” over him being a white male.

‘I Love Black People’

Adams argued that the “dishonest” media had flipped the origin of the racial aversion around, falsely assuming that he must be the one who didn’t want to be around black people.

“Have I ever said anything like that?” he asked his audience. “I’ve actually identified as black for years, until this week,” he said.

“Why? Because I like them so much. I love black people, like literally.”

As the outrage continued over his comments, Adams joined black commentator Bryan “Hotep Jesus” Sharpe on Feb. 25 to answer questions about whether his comments had been “irresponsible” given Adams’s influence: he has 871,800 Twitter followers and 121,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Adams said he had made the comments with a purpose: “to widen this conversation.”

“If you don’t know the purpose to it, it would look [racist] that way ... the minimum is, somebody needs to get into trouble by moving the envelope,” he said of stalled progress for improving the lives of black Americans.

Adams said that at the time of his identifying as black, he was spending lots of his time and money to help left-wing causes like Black Lives Matter (BLM) and groups attempting to end systemic racism. He has since withdrawn his support for BLM.

“My personal opinion is that systemic racism is the reason that it’s hard for people to get along,“ he said. ”The biggest form of systemic racism is that the school system is the biggest failure for black Americans—but anybody that’s poor so it’s not entirely a black thing—to me, that’s the biggest problem in this country, specifically for the underserved community, and I put my money and my dime behind it.”

But after years of finding that “the only outcome is [being] called a racist” despite helping black causes, Adams said after the poll that he had decided to back off.

He noted that no one criticizing him had disagreed with his initial statement, which he rephrased as: “You should avoid groups of people who are likely to have negative opinions about you, on average.”

“What I have seen disagreement on—and I agree with this criticism—is that the Rasmussen poll that I was looking at said that something like close to half of all black Americans who were polled were unwilling to say that ‘It’s OK to be white.’ I would agree that the data is not good.”

Time to ‘End Favoritism’

Adams also challenged America to change its approach to helping the black community.

In his view, he said, enough time has passed for race-based approaches: black people need to start stepping out of the “entire structure [that] is built around black inferiority,” which he said is not supported by anything he’s aware of.

“I’ve been tentatively in favor of affirmative action historically. So I’ve been in favor of it, which is pretty racist, wouldn’t you agree? I’m currently not in favor of affirmative action only because the gap has closed enough that the best thing you can do for the black community is to get rid of favoritism. You want to end favoritism before you get to equality.”

“What’s fairest for successful black people?” he asked. “We need to get to the point where everybody gets there on talent.”

Adams added, “Everybody who ever succeeded did it the same way—that’s the most dangerous message in America. There’s five things you’ve got to get right: 1. Stay out of jail. 2. Don’t be addicted to things like drugs and alcohol. 3. Don’t start a family too young before you’re ready. 4. Make education or training your top priority through life. 5. Show some character.”

“Now, which part of that is unavailable to black America? None of it, and we’re treating black Americans like infants to imagine that they’re the only group who can’t do the most obvious thing that everybody knows how to do,” Adams said.

“Basically, everyone does great if they follow the five rules.”

Some Americans, both black and white, responded to Adams on Twitter in support of the ban.

“Dear every publication that prints Dilbert: You are supporting a racist that wants segregation. @ScottAdamsSays is a red line. If you pay this racist, you should be boycotted, shamed, and canceled,” anti-fascist political commentator Jim Stewartson wrote.

Conservative author Sandy Lee Vincent wrote on Twitter: “[A] suggestion, stay focused on 50% that like whites. I’m black and think it’s way lower than 50% that don’t like whites. More around 20% but, depends on where you live. Chicago/Minneapolis is probably 80% hate whites while, Guntersville AL is 10% hate.”

Boyz II Men singer-songwriter Shawn Stockman posted on Twitter, “Which makes @ScottAdamsSays rant so poignant. His privilege allows him to retreat to his lily white microcosm and not have to see anyone else predominantly but his own race. And he can thrive and live a beautiful life. Black people do not have that same privilege.”

Others said they appreciated what Adams was trying to do.

“What you said took courage and as a black man, there was nothing racist about what you said. Nearly half of the black population unapologetically hates white people and I’ve known this for decades. Good on you for starting this important convo,” Christian musician Jon Banks replied to Adams on Twitter.

“Even MLK told you to judge character. By that logic, you'd be racist NOT to,” Banks said.