Inquirer, other papers drop ‘Dilbert’ after cartoonist’s racist remarks
On his YouTube show last week, Scott Adams, the comic strip's creator, described people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”
The Inquirer and other newspapers said Saturday they had pulled Scott Adams’ Dilbert comic strip over the cartoonist’s remarks describing people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”
On social media, Adams sought to defend himself against those who he said “hate me and are canceling me.”
Numerous media publishers across the U.S. denounced Adams’ comments as racist, hateful, and discriminatory, saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work.
“The views expressed by Scott Adams are unambiguously racist,” said Gabriel Escobar, editor and senior vice president of The Inquirer. “As with all race-baiting, his comments are profoundly disturbing and dangerous. We will no longer publish Dilbert.”
Andrews McMeel Syndication, which distributes Dilbert, did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment.
Dilbert is a long-running comic that pokes fun at workplace culture.
The backlash began following an episode last week of the YouTube show Real Coffee with Scott Adams. Among other topics, Adams referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.”
Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of Black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure.
The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase was popularized in 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the discussion forum 4chan but then began being used by some white supremacists.
Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.”
“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” Adams said on his Wednesday show.
In an episode of his online show Saturday, Adams said he had been making a point that “everyone should be treated as an individual” without discrimination.
“But you should also avoid any group that doesn’t respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine,” Adams said.
He denounced racism against “individuals” and racist laws, but said: “You should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage. Every one of you should be open to making a racist personal career decision.”
In the same show, Adams suggested that he had done irreparable harm to his career.
“Most of my income will be gone by next week,” he told about 3,000 livestream viewers. “My reputation for the rest of my life is destroyed. You can’t come back from this, am I right? There’s no way you can come back from this.”
The degradation of Adams’ public image was initially intertwined with his praise for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, he has identified himself with increasingly extremist viewpoints.
In 2019, he apologized to the victims of the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California for a tweet in which he used the tragedy to advertise an app he created. Adams claimed in June 2020 that the Dilbert television show was canceled because of his race, adding that it “was the third job I lost for being white.” He tweeted in January 2022 that he planned to “self-identify as a Black woman.” He has suggested Americans were brainwashed into supporting Ukraine.
Last May, Adams used Dilbert to mock workplace diversity and transgender politics through a new character called Dave the Black Engineer. He also praised anti-vaccine advocates last month on his YouTube show.
“In light of Scott Adams’ recent statements promoting segregation, the Washington Post has ceased publication of the Dilbert comic strip,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said Saturday, noting that it was too late to stop the strip from running in some forthcoming print editions, including Sunday’s.
The Los Angeles Times cited Adams’ “racist comments” while announcing Saturday that Dilbert will be discontinued Monday in most editions and that its final run in the Sunday comics — which are printed in advance — will be March 12.
The San Antonio Express-News, which is part of Hearst Newspapers, said Saturday that it will drop the strip, effective Monday, “because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.”
The USA Today Network tweeted Friday that it also will stop publishing Dilbert “due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.”
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and other publications that are part of Advance Local media also announced that they are dropping Dilbert.
Christopher Kelly, vice president of content for NJ Advance Media, wrote that the news organization believes in “the free and fair exchange of ideas.”
“But when those ideas cross into hate speech, a line must be drawn,” Kelly wrote.
This article contains information from the Washington Post.