US newspapers put “Dilbert” after racist remarks by the creator

Several US newspapers have announced that they will stop publishing the popular “Dilbert” comic after its creator released a video calling black people a “hate group”.

Scott Adams, who rose to fame in the 1990s with his satirical take on office life, has increasingly fueled controversy with his views on social issues.

But a video posted Wednesday – in which Adams called black people a “hate group” – proved to be the final straw for many “Dilbert” publishers.

“This is a hate group and I don’t want anything to do with them,” he said.

“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to move away from black people.”

His tirade was prompted by a recent poll by the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Report, the results of which he said showed that a slim majority of black respondents agreed that “it’s okay to be white.”

The USA TODAY Network, which operates hundreds of newspapers across the United States, said Friday that it “will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to its creator’s recent discriminatory comments.”

Chris Quinn, the editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, said Friday it was “not a difficult decision” for his newspaper to drop the comic strip.

“We are not a home for those who speak up for racism,” Quinn added.

MLive Media Group – which operates eight Michigan-based publications – said it has “zero tolerance for racism” and would drop Adam’s strip over his “unapologetically racist tirade.”

The Washington Post said Saturday it would remove the cartoon from its pages “in light of recent statements by Scott Adams,” though it was too late to prevent the strip from appearing in the weekend’s print editions.