‘Dilbert’ Distributor Cuts Ties With Creator Scott Adams Over Racist Comments

Andrews McMeel Universal, the distributor of Scott Adams‘ Dilbert comic strip, announced Sunday that it was cutting ties with the cartoonist after he referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” that white people should “get away” from on his YouTube show Real Coffee with Scott Adams.

The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and other major newspapers across the U.S. have publicly stated that they would no longer publish the comic strip.

Adams began by commenting on the results of a poll run by Rasmussen Reports that asked, “Do you agree or disagree with this statement, ‘It’s OK to be white’?”

The poll found that 72% agreed, including 53% who are Black. About 26% of Black responders disagreed and 21% said they were “not sure.”

The Anti-Defamation League considers the phrase “It’s OK to be white” as a hate chant. It became popular in 2017 as a 4chan trolling campaign that was later adopted by some white supremacists.

Later in the video, the cartoonist stated that he previously helped the Black community to be “on the winning team.” However, with the poll results, he said, “It turns out that nearly half of that team doesn’t think I’m okay to be white. I’m going to back off from being helpful to Black America because it doesn’t seem like it pays off. I get called a racist. That’s the only outcome.”

This is not the first time “Dilbert” has been dropped from a newspaper.

Last year, The San Francisco Chronicle and 76 other newspapers stopped publishing the comic strip after Adams introduced his first Black character, which editor Chris Quinn of cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer said was an attempt to “poke fun at ‘woke’ culture and the LGBTQ community.”

Adams reacted to the backlash on Twitter, claiming that he had been canceled for voicing his opinion.

Elon Musk tweeted in support of Adams, but he later agreed with a tweet saying Adams’ comments “weren’t good” but contained an “element of truth.”