‘Dilbert’ dropped after creator’s racist rant: Reports
FLE – Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, poses for a portrait with the Dilbert character in his studio in Dublin, Calif., Oct. 26, 2006. Several prominent media publishers across the U.S. are dropping the Dilbert comic strip after Adams, its creator, described people who are Black as members of “a racist hate group” during an online video show. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
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(NewsNation) — Multiple newspapers will no longer run the comic strip “Dilbert” after its creator made racist statements in a YouTube video, per multiple media reports.
According to Variety, cartoonist Scott Adams went on his YouTube show and called Black Americans a “hate group” and urged white people to get away from them.
“I don’t think it makes any sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore. It doesn’t make sense,” Adams said. “There’s no longer a rational impulse.”
In response to this, Chris Quinn, the editor of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, announced the newspaper will no longer publish the “Dilbert” comic strip.
“This is not a difficult decision,” Quinn wrote in a column. “This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve. We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”
Quinn pointed out that Adams’ “reprehensible” remarks came during Black History Month, when The Plain- Dealer “has been publishing stories about the work being performed by so many to overcome the damage done by racist decisions and policy.”
There will still be some Dilbert cartoons in The Plain-Dealer for the next week or so, though, Quinn said, as the comics are printed in advance.
After that, though, there will be a gray box in the spot where “Dilbert” previously was until the newspaper decides what to replace it with.
The Plain-Dealer is a part of Advance Local, and leaders in all of the company’s newsrooms made the independent decision to stop running the strip, Quinn said. That means multiple newspapers, including ones in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Massachusetts and Oregon will no longer have “Dilbert” on their pages either.
The San Antonio Express-News, which is part of Hearst Newspapers, said Saturday that it will drop the Dilbert comic strip, effective Monday, “because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.”
The USA Today Network tweeted Friday that it also will stop publishing Dilbert “due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.”
This isn’t the first time a company has pulled “Dilbert.”
Variety reports that 77 newspapers owned by publisher Lee Enterprises also dropped “Dilbert,” though the news outlet says that appeared to be part of a larger move to scale back comic strips.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
