Cartoonist’s racism canceled ‘Dilbert’
Scott Adams left no room for doubt. Sometimes a public figure says or does something that is labeled “racially tinged’ or “racially charged,” but carries enough ambiguity for the person to say it was a misunderstanding.
Not Adams.
Sometimes a public figure is given a pass because what was said or done was so out of their character and did not fit past behavior.
Not Adams.
Most public figures would not livestream on Youtube to warn white people to, “get the hell away from Black people!”
Not Adams.
The creator of the comic strip “Dilbert” has saved us from lengthy debates of why phrases like “racially tinged” or “racially charged” might have been used instead of describing something as racist.
Most people who have listened to (or read about) his resentful, self-pitying diatribe about Black people, made last week, came to the quick assessment that it was racist.
Referring to a very questionable Rasmussen Reports survey in which 47 percent of Black people polled said they either didn’t agree with or weren’t sure about the statement, “It’s OK to be White,” Adams lost his mind.
“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with White people … that’s a hate group,” Adams said on his podcast. “I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, 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, just get the f**k away… because there is no fixing this.”
A word about the strangely worded poll question “It’s OK to be White.” As the Washington Post reported, this phrase originated on right-wing 4chan forums in 2017. According to the Antidefamation League, white supremacists adopted it, which may have been known by the 47 percent of Black respondents who answered negatively to the question.
In Adams’ rant, he whined about all he’d done to help Black people, but that it wasn’t appreciated. He claimed, bizarrely, that he’d been identifying himself as Black because he wanted to be on “the winning team,” but would now go back to identifying as white.
He called Black people a hate group uninterested in education. He said
Black people were always on videos beating up non-black people.
Generalizing an entire ethnic group, stereotyping them as an uneducated, hateful mob and advocating racial segregation is racist.
It’s Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s 1963 inauguration speech racist.
It’s, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” racist.
The blowback to this blowhard’s venomous bile was swift as newspapers across the nation, including the San Antonio Express-news, dropped “Dilbert.”
As publisher Mark H. Medici and Editor-in-chief Marc Duvoisin, explained to readers:
“The San Antonio Express-news is dropping the comic strip ‘Dilbert’ because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator, Scott Adams.
“In his online video show, Adams recently made numerous disparaging remarks about Black Americans. These statements are offensive to our core values. Dropping a comic strip from our pages is not censorship. Adams is entitled to his opinions. The Express-news is not obliged to give him a platform and financial support.”
Predictably, Adams and his defenders like Twitter owner/troll Elon Musk have responded that he is a victim of cancel culture.
They misinterpret the First Amendment as something protecting Adams from the consequences of his words and images. That’s not how the First Amendment works. Adams can say whatever he wants, but there is no requirement for newspapers to provide him a platform. Just as the First Amendment protects speech — even hate speech — it also protects publishing decisions.
Adams became a millionaire by integrating Dilbert in the daily reading habits of many newspaper readers. He has now segregated himself from those readers as newspapers have moved fast to “get the hell” away from him.
Adams is no victim. He did this to himself.
Adams has only himself to blame for his diatribe and reactions to it