Scott Adams called black Americans a “hate group” and suggested that white Americans “get the fuck away from black people” in response to a conservative organization poll that claimed to show that many African Americans don’t think it’s okay to be white.
“If almost half of all blacks disagree with whites … then that’s a hate group,” Adams said on his YouTube channel on Wednesday. “And I want nothing to do with them.”
The comments caused a furor on social media, along with calls for the conservative cartoonist’s work to be removed from publishers’ lists.
His once-popular comic, which satirizes corporate culture and was launched in 1989, will no longer be accepted by the public. Los Angeles Timesthe Washington Postthe USA today-affiliated group of newspapers and others, the newspapers announced in statements on Friday and Saturday.
“This is not a hard decision,” says Chris Quinn, editor of the regular dealer in Cleveland said in a letter to readers posted on Friday. “We are not a home for those who espouse racism.”
The Los Angeles Times on Saturday said it would also drop the strip.
“Cartoonist Scott Adams made racial slurs in a YouTube livestream on Feb. 22, offensive remarks THe Time rejects,” the newspaper said on its website.
The times said it had removed four Dilbert cartoons from its pages in recent months because they violated the paper’s standards.
Adams was not immediately available for comment by Reuters on Saturday. But on his YouTube channel, he confirmed that his comic was being removed – and said he had expected it to happen.
“By Monday I should be mostly canceled. So most of my income will be gone next week,” he said. “My reputation for the rest of my life has been destroyed. You can’t get away from this.”
Adams’ initial comments came in response to a conservative Rasmussen poll that appeared to show that 26% of black respondents said they disagreed with the statement “It’s okay to be white.” Another 21% said they were not sure.
However, Rasmussen also said last week’s online and phone survey of 1,000 likely American voters showed that 72% of Americans generally agree that it’s okay to be white, compared to 12% who say it’s there disagrees.
Adams said in his tantrum on Wednesday that he moved to a different location to get away from black people, and urged other white people to do the same.
“I’m not saying you should start a war or anything like that,” he said. “I’m just saying go away.”