The Dilbert comic strip has been dropped from newspapers all across the country after creator Scott Adams went on a racist rant and said that Black people were a “hate group” against whites and the only solution was to “get away from Black people.”
“I don’t want anything to do with them,” Adams said in a video posted to his YouTube channel, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams.” He also said “You just have to escape.” Where to? To a neighborhood with a “very low Black population.” This is just a sample, but understandably this upset pretty much everyone. As the story builds more and more steam, more newspapers are pulling Dilbert by the hour.
So far, hundreds of newspapers have jumped shipped, according to CNN. The Los Angeles Times said that Dilbert’s last strip will run on March 12 (those are pre-printed) and said Adams’ “racist comments” were the reason. The USA Today Network said it won’t print Dilbert “due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.” That alone makes up hundreds of papers.
The San Antonio Express-News said it was eschewing the popular comic “because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.” The Plain Dealer, located in Cleveland, said “We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”
NJ Advance Media said it is supportive of free speech but not when “those ideas cross into hate speech.” The Washington Post also followed suite. The company that distributes the comic, Andrews McMeel Syndication, has yet to comment on the situation.
Adams has been commenting on the issue on his social accounts. “After my cancelling, find me at http://scottadams.locals.com for the good stuff. Might be the only place to find Dilbert soon,” he said.
He also claims that while people are angry at him, and no one disagrees with him.
Adams seems to be conflating the idea of “free speech,” which is protected by the First Amendment, and “hate speech,” which is not. Regardless, he’s doubling down.
Twitter owner and attention monger Elon Musk even chimed in, because of course he did.
We are still in the fairly early stages of this, so we’ll see where this one goes at it develops. It’s not going to be pretty, that’s for sure.