US newspapers drop Dilbert comic strip over its creator’s racist remarks

By Busra Nur Cakmak

ANKARA (AA) – Several US newspapers have dropped the Dilbert comic strip over racist comments by its creator.

On Feb. 22, Scott Adams called Black Americans a “hate group” in response to a poll conducted by the conservative firm Rasmussen Reports in which Black respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement "It's OK to be white."

The poll appeared to show that 26% of the respondents disagreed with the statement while another 21% were not sure and 53% agreed.

“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with White people – according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll – that’s a hate group,” Adams said on his YouTube show “Real Coffee With Scott Adams.”

“I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” said Adams. “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…because there is no fixing this.”

The USA TODAY Network, which publishes several newspapers across the country, said they “will no longer publish the ‘Dilbert’ comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.”

The Los Angeles Times also “decided to cease publication of ‘Dilbert.’ Cartoonist Scott Adams made racist comments in a YouTube livestream Feb. 22, offensive remarks that The Times rejects,” said the paper in a statement Saturday.

The Washington Post also dropped the comic strip “in light of Scott Adams’s recent statements promoting segregation,” paper said.

Adams is an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Dilbert, which debuted on April 16, 1989. It is well-known for its sarcastic office humor featuring engineer Dilbert as the titular character in a white-collar, micromanaged office.