‘Dilbert’ distributor and book publisher drop creator Scott Adams over his racist remarks
By Jon Passantino and Oliver Darcy, CNN
Andrews McMeel Universal, the company that syndicates “Dilbert,” said it is cutting ties with the comic strip’s creator, Scott Adams, after his racist remarks about Black Americans led hundreds of newspapers across the country to drop the satirical cartoon.
In a joint statement, Andrews McMeel Chairman Hugh Andrews and CEO and President Andy Sareyan said that the syndication company was “severing our relationship” with Adams and condemned his remarks, saying “we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate.”
The publisher of a forthcoming book from Adams also said Monday that it would no longer move forward with publishing the title.
The Penguin Random House imprint, Portfolio, said it won’t publish Adams’ upcoming book, “Reframe Your Brain.” The book was set to release in September.
“My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist,” Adams wrote Monday on Twitter. He also said his book agent “canceled” him.
Portfolio published Adams’ previous titles, including “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” and “Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America.”
Hundreds of papers drop ‘Dilbert’
Though McMeel’s decision could be one of the most significant repercussions for the comic strip, hundreds of newspapers across the country already stopped running “Dilbert.”
Adams effectively encouraged segregation in a shocking rant on YouTube, calling Black Americans a “hate group” and suggesting that White people should “get the hell away” from them.
The USA Today Network, which operates hundreds of newspapers, said it had pulled the plug on the long-running comic strip. The Washington Post and The Plain Dealer also in Cleveland said they would no longer carry the comic.
Adams’ comments came in response to a poll from the conservative firm Rasmussen Reports that said 53% of Black Americans agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to be White.”
The Anti-Defamation League has noted that the phrase emerged on the infamous message board 4chan in 2017 as a trolling campaign and has a “long history” in the white supremacist movement.
“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with White people — according to this poll, not according to me, according to th is poll — that’s a hate group,” Adams said Wednesday on his YouTube show “Real Coffee with Scott Adams.”
“I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” Adams added. “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.”
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CNN’s Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.
