White man down: Frustration is not racism

ABOUT Scott Adams, the white male creator of the (once) popular “Dilbert” comic strip, The Washington Post wrote: “On his Feb. 22 episode of ‘Real Coffee With Scott Adams,’ the creator of the comic strip ‘Dilbert’ decided to riff on a much-criticized Rasmussen poll and promote a type of segregation. He declared that Black Americans are part of a ‘hate group’ and urged white people to ‘get the hell away from Black people.’”

Adams later said his comments were “hyperbole,” but the damage was done.

About the “much criticized” Rasmussen poll, it asked American adults the following question: “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: ‘It’s OK to be white.’” Eighty-one percent of white American adults strongly or somewhat agreed, 7 percent strongly or somewhat disagreed, and 13 percent responded, “not sure.” As for Blacks, 53 percent strongly or somewhat agree, 26 percent strongly or somewhat disagree, and 21 percent of Blacks responded, “not sure.”

In interpreting the poll, Adams confusingly said, “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people … that’s a hate group.”

Adams said a lot of things in his “racist tirade,” including that he tried to be supportive of Blacks but felt his efforts were not appreciated: “And so, I’m going to back off from being helpful to Black America because it doesn’t seem like it pays off. Like

I’ve been doing it all my life, and the only outcome is I get called a racist.”

Do you really think Adams, a former Bernie Sanders supporter, is the only white person who feels this sense of frustration? After all, we have had affirmative action or race-based preferences now for more than 50 years. And some Black students want separate dorms and graduation ceremonies. How is that different from what Adams said?

Nearly every major city from New York to Los Angeles has or has had a Black mayor or a Black police chief. Yet, when a Black suspect was mistreated recently in Memphis, Tennessee, the Black mayor of Los Angeles suggested the cops would have reacted differently had the suspect not been Black. Never mind the cops and the Memphis police chief are Black.

In Baltimore in 2015,

Black suspect Freddie Gray died in police custody. The mayor was Black; the No. 1 and No. 2 in charge of the police department were Black; three of the six officers charged were Black; the police department is majority minority; the state attorney who brought the charges was Black; the judge before whom two of the officers tried their case, and who found them not guilty, was Black; and U.S. attorney, Loretta Lynch, was

Black, as was then-president Barack Obama. Yet despite all these Black players and decision-makers, the Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation.

At a time when anti-black racism has never been less of a factor, most Blacks demand reparations, properly described as payments from those who were never slave owners to be given to those who were never slaves. Schools promote concepts such as critical race theory that characterize whites as oppressors and Blacks as victims. Some Blacks complain about “micro-aggressions.” If in response to “Black Lives Matter,” a white person says, “All Lives Matter,” all hell breaks loose.

Is it really surprising that some whites, such as Adams, are now saying, “Check, please!”? He just said it out loud. Frustration is not racism.