Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: A number of US newspapers plan to drop the popular “Dilbert” comic strip from their publications after its creator posted a video termed Black people a “hate group.”
Scott Adams, who with his satirical take on white-collar office life rose to fame in the 1990s, has increasingly stoked controversy with his takes on social issues.
In a video posted on Wednesday was considered to be the last straw for many publishers of “Dilbert” – in which Adams referred to Black people as a “hate group”.
Adams stated, “That’s a hate group and I don’t want anything to do with them.”
He opined that based on the present pattern, my “best advice” to white people is to stay away from “Black people.”
A recent opinion poll by conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports, showed a slight majority of Black respondents agreed with the statement “It’s okay to be white.” It is believed that Adams diatribe was based on these results.
Comic strip Dilbert dropped from US newspapers
The USA TODAY Network said Friday it “will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.” The network operates hundreds of papers across the United States.
Chris Quinn, the editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, said Friday that it “was not a difficult decision” for his paper to drop the comic strip.
Quinn simply said, “We are not a home for those who espouse racism.”
MLive Media Group, which runs 8 Michigan-based publications, said it would drop Adams’s strip because of his “unapologetically racist rant,” as it had “zero tolerance for racism.”
The Washington Post, in its statement on Saturday, said that it would drop the cartoon from its pages “in light of Scott Adams’s recent statements.” It added that it was too late to stop the strip from being published in the weekend’s print editions.
