Disgraced cartoonist Scott Adams now says he’s actually “identified as Black for several years,” just days after several newspapers across the nation announced that they would be dropping the Dibert comic strip after its creator called Black people a “hate group” and advised white people to “get the hell away from Black people.”
The revelation came early Monday morning, around 7:41 am on Feb. 27, 2023, when Adams took to his Twitter page in a series of posts in which he claimed, “I’ve lost three careers to direct racism so far. Crocker Bank, Pacific Bell, and cartooning.”
Adams alleged, “All three were perpetrated by White people for their own gain,” before stating, “No Black person has ever discriminated against me. That’s partly why I identified as Black for several years.”
Almost an hour later, he returned with a poll asking social media users, “Are you considering canceling your newspaper subscription (if you have one) because Dilbert got canceled?” with the options yes, no, and “what’s a newspaper?” At the bottom of his post, he also noted, “I don’t favor boycotts in most cases. I was just curious.”
After a few hours, 16.7% of people answered yes, 33.6% said no, and 49.8% clicked “what’s a newspaper,” while his comment section appeared to have fallen into disarray, including one online user telling the artist, “I would have cancelled if they had kept Dilbert after that racist rant.”
The day appeared to only get worse from there, as Adams continued to share updates, including a repost of someone asking him “Is Dilbert.com still going to be available,” to which Adams answered, “Not likely.”
By lunchtime, Adams revealed, “My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist. Still no disagreement about my point of view. My book agent canceled me too.”
The demise of the beloved Dilbert cartoon comes following comments the 65-year-old made on his online show Real Coffee with Scott Adams while responding to a poll from Rasmussen Reports about whether “It’s OK to be white.” While 53% felt it was OK, Adam directed his focus to the remaining who opposed it, calling them a “hate group.”
“So if nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people, according to this poll, not according to me, that’s a hate group. That’s a hate group, and I don’t want anything to do with them,” he said at the time before adding, “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. Just get the f**k away.”
Shortly after, Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US, said it would stop publishing the comic immediately, and several more publications have since followed suit.