What’s The Deal With ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams?

Newspapers across the US have dropped the comic strip Dilbert in response to racist comments made by its creator, Scott Adams, who called Black Americans a “hate group” and urged white people to “get the hell away” from Black people in a YouTube video.

Adams’ comments were in response to a poll that found 26% of Black people disagree with the phrase, “It’s OK to be white,” which prompted Adams to say, “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people … that’s a hate group.” Adams went on to say that he would no longer “help Black Americans.”

There’s a lot to unpack here; first of all, Adams seems to have misread the poll, as 26% is not “half.”

The phrase, “It’s OK to be white,” was popularized in 2017 by 4Chan trolls who intended to “trigger” liberals with a seemingly inoffensive slogan; the phrase was quickly embraced by white supremacists, and has since been labeled a “hate symbol” by the Anti-Defamation League.

The poll was conducted by conservative-leaning company Rasmussen Reports, which has previously been criticized over the wording in its polls. The poll’s accuracy has also been questioned by critics, who noted a small sample size and an obvious mathematical error published on Twitter.

According to Adams, Dilbert has subsequently “been cancelled from all newspapers, websites, calendars, and books.”

The reckoning seems long overdue, as Adams achieved Twitter infamy many years ago, having gained a reputation as a conspiratorial Trump supporter who has made some extremely questionable comments about race; he once referred to the cancellation of a Dilbert animated TV series 20 years ago as the “the third job I lost for being white.”

Recently, Adams tweeted that he “identified as Black for several years.” In 2022, Adams tweeted that was “going to self-identify as a Black woman” until Joe Biden picked his presidential nominee to the US supreme court.

Keith Knight, an illustrator known for his comic strips The Knight Life, and The K Chronicles, said of the Dilbert cancellation: “It begs the question, now that everyone is piling on him, what took so long?”

On Twitter, ironic comedy accounts and comic book artists have long made fun of the fact that Dilbert, a fairly forgettable strip that pokes fun at the dull absurdity of office life, stands in stark contrast to the unhinged opinions that Adams frequently posts on Twitter. Casual Dilbert readers would likely be shocked by Adams’ tweets.

Notably, Adams’ obsession with race did make its way into the panels of Dilbert, when Adams introduced a black character, “Dave the Black Engineer,” whom he used to mock the idea of diversity and transgender identity, as Dave “identified as white.”

Amusingly, the strip was printed without color.

For several years, Adams’ bizarre tweets have provided fuel for Twitter discourse, jokes and memes; like the time he suggested that children should be legally allowed to “kill their bullies,” or his paranoid prediction that, under President Biden, Republicans would be “hunted.”

Adams once claimed that he has had $50,000 stolen from him, “5-7 times.”

Adams also is, for some reason, very much against the idea of a young person buying a dog.

Despite his terrible Twitter reputation and career implosion, Adams still has the support of Twitter owner Elon Musk, who appears to sympathize with Adams. In response to a tweet discussing the fall of Dilbert, Musk wrote: “the media is racist.”

Musk later responded to a Twitter user’s comment that “Adams’s comments weren’t good. But there’s an element of truth to this…it’s complicated.” Musk replied: “Exactly.”

Musk has interacted with Adams on Twitter before, and continues to do so. Recently, Adams wrote, “Is it racist to avoid racists who are the same race as each other? Or is it only racist if the racists you are avoiding are white?” Musk replied: “Simultaneously, an interesting question and a tongue twister!”

Yesterday, Musk responded to a tweet from Adams lamenting the fall of Dilbert, writing: “I don’t agree with everything Scott says, but Dilbert is legit funny & insightful. We should stop canceling comedy!”

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, described Adams’ comments as “flat out racist,” and said that he was “deeply disturbed” by Musk’s comments. “As the prominent leader of a social media platform,” he said, “Musk’s words carry great influence, and he should be condemning bigotry, not defending it.”

In response to the Dilbert fiasco, Twitter users began to jokingly promote Garfield as the new king of comics, hailing creator Jim Davidson’s lack of social media presence as a blessing, and “praying” that The Far Side creator Gary Larson remains wholesome and unproblematic.