Cartoonists from around the world are taking turns absolutely pummelling the creator of the DILBERT cartoon strip. Here’s why…
Current Events :
In case you’ve been out of the loop lately, DILBERT cartoon creator Scott Adams is a racist. He proved his position via his own podcast when he referenced a poll that said 53% of African-Americans believe it’s okay to be White. For some reason, Adams felt that number was too low. He then went on a tirade saying there’s “no fixing” racial tensions in America, that Caucasians should live in largely segregated neighborhoods, and then he called Black people a “hate group.”
“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*ck away,” the DILBERT illustrator and Donald Trump sycophant said. “Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed.”
Why the creator of a cartoon chose to inject himself into race relations in America — and then make a judgment about a specific race over another — is a mystery. However, it didn’t take long for his words to kill his career as newspapers everywhere dropped the DILBERT comic strip instantly and permanently.
Here’s @ScottAdamsSays being racist because he’s always been racist pic.twitter.com/ksWujRyXcP
— Hugh Kairs🫐 (@LyfeIzWeerd) February 23, 2023
Interestingly, cartoonists and publishers wanted to go a step further and make Adams’ punishment a bit more personal.
Cartoonist Darrin Bell addressed Adams’ racism by transforming his strip “Candorville” (which usually features young Black and Latino characters) into the look and style of the DILBERT series.
In the strip, Bell paired Dilbert with his character Lemont Brown in a story that showed them both attempting to get a laundry room installed at work.
“You could wash your hoodie,” Dilbert said. “And you could wash your hood?” Lemont responded.
“The only reason anyone knows who Scott Adams is is because of the comics page. So I thought somebody on the comics page should respond to him on the comics page,” Bell, the 2019 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for illustrated reporting and commentary said.
“We can’t move forward and progress as a culture and as a society if there are still people in these gatekeeping roles that are holding onto these archaic ideas,” said artist Bianca Xunise, who co-authors the strip “Six Chix” and is the second Black woman in comics history to be nationally syndicated.
For their part, The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts opted to be creative in their response.
Instead of replacing the DILBERT comic strip with something else, they decided to keep the space blank through March “as a reminder of the racism that pervades our society.”
A major comic distributor also spoke out against Adams.
“We believe comics are a powerful medium and that cartoonists should perpetuate laughter, not racism and hate,” said Tea Fougner, editor-in-chief of King Features Syndicate.
The moral of the story here is that words have consequences. Scott Adams spoke his truth — and now, he’s paying the consequences.
OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
Cartoonists criticize DILBERT creator’s racism.
CNN:
Dilbert is coming back. At least in a different sense.
Scott Adams, the comic creator who was dropped by hundreds of publications after his recent racist comments, tweeted that “Dilbert Reborn” will launch exclusively on his subscription site on March 13.