US media drops Dilbert as creator calls Black people 'hate group'

Scott Adams, who introduced Asok the IIT-ian to America, is canned after asking white people to 'get away' from Black people

The cartoon Dilbert has been dropped from numerous US newspapers in response to racist comments by its creator, Scott Adams — who introduced IIT into the American media discourse — on his YouTube channel. Adams called Black Americans a “hate group” and suggested white Americans “get the hell away from Black people” in response to a conservative organisation’s poll purporting to show that many African Americans do not agree with the statement: “It’s OK to be white.”

“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people ... that’s a hate group,” said Adams. “And I don’t want to have anything to do with them.” The comments ignited a furor on social media, along with calls for the conservative cartoonist’s work to be dropped from publishers’ rosters.

His once-popular comic strip, which lampoons corporate culture and was launched in 1989, will no longer be carried by The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the USA Today-affiliated group of newspapers and others, the newspapers announced on Friday and Saturday.

“In light of Scott Adams’s recent statements promoting segregation, The Washington Post has ceased publication of the Dilbert comic strip,” the newspaper said on Saturday. 

On Friday, the USA Today Network, which runs more than 300 newspapers, said it “will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.” 

The Los Angeles Times on Saturday said it too would drop the strip. 

Adams’s initial remarks came in response to a conservative Rasmussen Poll that appeared to show that 26 per cent of Black respondents said they disagreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white”. Another 21 per cent said they were not sure.

Musk says ‘the media is racist’

Elon Musk called the media racist after Scott Adams, a cartoonist he regularly engages with on Twitter faced blowback for encouraging White Americans to avoid Black people. Musk waded into the controversy when an account spoke out against coverage of Adams, Musk replied: “The media is racist.”

“For a ‘very’ long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians,” Musk said. “Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.”

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