Dilbert cartoonist’s racist rant draws condemnation
Scott Adams, the creator of the internationally syndicated Dilbert comic strip, unleashed a racist rant this week on YouTube, saying Black people are a hate group and “I don't wanna have anything to do with 'em” — a statement that is being met with condemnation, including the cancellation of his cartoons from newspapers.
Adams, made the offensive comments on his “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” video show, after erroneously concluding that a poll had found “nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people.” He was referring to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 American adults who were asked whether they agreed with the statement “It's ok to be white,” a phrase the AntiDefamation League has labeled as hate speech. Yet, according to Rasmussen, 72% of Americans agreed with the statement, including 53% of Black respondents. Twenty-two percent of Americans disagreed with the statement, including 26% of Black respondents.
“If nearly half of Blacks are not OK with white people — according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll — uh that's a hate group,” Adams said on his show. “That's a hate group and I don't wanna have anything to do with ‘em. And I would say the best advice I could give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
“It makes no sense whatsoever as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore,” he said. Adams furthered his offensive rant by saying that he escaped by living in a neighborhood with a “very low” Black population.
Adams' rant was met with fury online. Actress Marsha Warfield shared the clip to her Twitter timeline, saying, “Because nothing is racist to a racist, or they'd have to admit they're a racist.”
Gannett, which runs hundreds of local media outlets across the U.S. and publishes USA Today, announced Friday it would no longer publish the Dilbert strip because of “recent discriminatory comments” by its creator.
Earlier in the day, the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced the paper dropped the Dilbert comic strip because of Adams' rant. “This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve,” editor Chris Quinn said. “We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”
It's not the first time Adams has enraged the public. After the 2019 shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, he tried to profit off the tragedy by encouraging witnesses to sign up for an app he created.
The San Francisco Chronicle stopped carrying Dilbert last October after strips that, among other things, joked that reparations, proposed for African Americans because of slavery, can be claimed by underperforming office workers and that to get around efforts to diversify workplaces straight men should pretend they are gay, said Emilio GarciaRuiz, editor in chief.
“His strip went from being hilarious to being hurtful and mean,” he said. “Very few readers noticed when we killed it and we only had a handful of complaints. We had many more complaints when we stopped other strips.”
Dilbert was dropped Saturday by the San Antonio Express News and Hearst Connecticut Media Group, which are owned by Hearst Communications, The Chronicle's parent company. “We believe strongly in upholding important newsroom standards and values aimed at supporting society, and the valued readers we serve,” the papers said in a note to readers.
According to the Daily Beast, Adams' comic was dropped from 77 newspapers by publisher Lee Enterprises in September. The comic, which has appeared in newspapers since 1989, once ran in as many as 2,000 newspapers in 70 countries and 25 languages.
Adams could not be reached for comment.