“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams is grappling with cancel culture after a racist rant made the rounds revealing his thoughts about Black people and calling African-Americans a hate group.
“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people, that’s a hate group,” Adams said on his video blog.
Adams, the long-time comic strip creator’s rant went viral on Feb. 22 after he reacted to a conservative-leaning poll that asked, “Do you agree or disagree, it’s OK to be white.”
The 65-year-old, upset with responses to the poll, criticized Black people by questioning the community’s desire for education, quality of neighborhoods and outlook on life.
“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…because there is no fixing this,” Adams ranted.
The poll in question was conducted by Rasmussen Reports, a conservative-leaning polling group. The poll criticized “woke” culture, a political talking point, especially among conservatives criticizing social justice efforts. The poll suggested 26 percent of Black Americans disagreed with the statement “It’s Ok to be white,” and 21 percent were not sure.
Adams, who once claimed to identify as Black, quipped in response, “I’m going to re-identify as white because I don’t want to identify as a hate group.”
Adams went on to reference CNN anchor Don Lemon to leverage personal commentary that claimed predominately “Black neighborhoods had more problems than white neighborhoods.”
Adams further espouse his efforts to help the Black community although he did not provide specific examples in his monologue. He then implied Black Americans do not value education as much as white people.
“Everybody who focuses their priority on education does well, if anybody in the Black community focuses on education, they’ll do well as well because the system allows that. If they don’t, I just can’t make that my problem anymore” Adams said.
The cartoonist also claimed he was “sick of seeing video after video of Black Americans beating up non-Black citizens.”
In the days that followed, reaction was swift to condemn Adams’ comments.
“He should just grab up his boys and head to some remote island where they can love on each other and not have to see us,” wrote fwilk513 on Atlanta Black Star’s Instagram page.
Fellow Instagram user, KellyKalz simply asked, “I’m confused we’re ‘The Hate Group’.
“Shidd. We wish you would,” thacashcoll3cta wrote.
Theresa Cross tweeted to The Columbian, a Washington newspaper, “The next time you review your comics selections please stop carrying Dilbert. Our community doesn’t support this kind of rhetoric.”
Adams’ Dilbert comic strip has been in circulation since 1989. The comic features the Dilbert character that portrays an office manager typically mocking office culture through satire. The cartoon ran in newspapers across the country and internationally. The comic strip was later turned into a cartoon in the late 1990s.
Adams’ net worth is an estimated $75 million, but after his viral rant, he admits that could soon change.
“Most of my income will be gone by next week,” Adams said.
Newspapers across the country have announced they are dropping his comic strip from The Washington Post to The San Francisco Chronicle. Prior to his viral rant, Adams’ comic strip already faced pressure from media outlets due to racially insensitive jokes about enslaved people, reparations and workplace inclusion efforts, according to The Washington Post.
Despite cancel culture’s widespread condemnation of Adams’ remarks, he has at least one vocal supporter, Elon Musk.
In response to a tweet by The San Francisco Chronicle about Adams’ controversy, Musk called the media racist.
“For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites and Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges and high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist,” Musk wrote.
Dilbert concluded his roughly seven-minute rant against Black people by claiming he no longer aligns with Black people.
“I do not align with any group, not the white supremacist and not the Black racists,” Adams said.
“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,” Adams went on to say.
