Boston Globe among newspapers dropping Dilbert cartoon after creator's 'racist comments'

BOSTON - The creator of the Dilbert comic strip faced a backlash of cancellations Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are Black as members of "a hate group" from which white people should "get away."

Various media publishers across the U.S., including the Boston Globe, denounced the comments by Dilbert creator Scott Adams as racist, hateful and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work.

Andrews McMeel Syndication, which distributes Dilbert, did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment. But Adams defended himself on social media against those whom he said "hate me and are canceling me."

Dilbert is a long-running comic that pokes fun at office-place culture.

The backlash began following an episode this past week of the YouTube show, "Real Coffee with Scott Adams." Among other topics, Adams referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement "It's OK to be white."

Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of Black respondents disagreed and others weren't sure.

The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase was popularized in 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the discussion forum 4chan but then began being used by some white supremacists.

Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a "hate group" or a "racist hate group" and said he would no longer "help Black Americans."

"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," Adams said on his Wednesday show.

In another episode of his online show Saturday, Adams said he had been making a point that "everyone should be treated as an individual" without discrimination.

"But you should also avoid any group that doesn't respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine," Adams said.

In a statement released by Nancy Barnes, editor of The Globe, on Saturday, Barnes said the newspaper made the decision to drop the comic following Adam's comments on his youtube show earlier this week.

"The Boston Globe has made the decision to drop the Dilbert strip in the wake of racist comments by creator Scott Adams on his video show this past week," the statement reads. "Some of these comics are preprinted and inserted into the paper in advance; it may take us several days to eliminate new ones from your printed paper and our website."