SCOTT ADAMS POSES WITH THE DILBERT CHARACTER IN HIS STUDIO IN CALIFORNIA IN 2006. SEVERAL MEDIA PUBLISHERS ARE DROPPING THE STRIP AFTER ADAMS DESCRIBED PEOPLE WHO ARE BLACK AS MEMBERS OF "A RACIST HATE GROUP." PHOTO: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP
Newspapers across the U.S. announced they would no longer publish the "Dilbert" comic strip after cartoonist Scott Adams made inflammatory comments regarding Black people last week on his YouTube show.
Media outlets to drop it include the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and the USA Today Network of hundreds of papers.
Adams' rant during an episode of "Real Coffee with Scott Adams" came in response to a Rasmussen poll that found that only 53% of Black respondents agreed with the statement that "it's OK to be white."
- In response, Adams said he had identified as Black "because I like to be on the winning team" and that he had helped the Black community but no longer would after seeing the poll results.
- "That's a hate group, and I don't want to have anything to do with them," Adams said.
- He also said white people should "get the hell away" from Black people.
- The San Francisco Chronicle stopped carrying "Dilbert" last October, as well as 76 other newspapers published by Lee Enterprises.
- Chronicle editor-in-chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said his paper dropped the strip in response to jokes about reparations and workplace diversity efforts.
- He also said very few readers complained when it was dropped.
- The 65-year-old cartoonist responded to the new backlash on his Twitter account, saying he'd been canceled.
- Adams produced "Dilbert," which satirizes office culture, for three decades and reportedly appeared in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.
