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By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
On Sunday, Elon Musk, multi-billionaire owner of Twitter, rushed to defend cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert” comic strip, who has been facing fierce condemnation in recent days and whose career seems to be at risk.
As reported by the NY Times, backlash was swift against Adams when hundreds of newspapers across the board dropped “Dilbert” from their publications, calling Adams a racist, hateful and discriminatory. On Sunday, the repercussions grew as Andrews McMeel Publishing, the comic’s distributor, announced that they would stop working with the Adams.
‘Dilbert’ is a long-running comic that makes light of office-place culture. The drama began on Feb. 22, when the writer of the comic strip aired a You Tube episode of the livestream show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams.” Adams was speaking regarding the topic, “It’s OK to be White.” There was a Rasmussen Reports survey, in which most people questioned agreed, but notably 26 percent of Black respondents disagreed, and still others were unsure. As per CBS News, Adams, who is White, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as part of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group”. Adams went on to say he would no longer “help Black Americans,” and he urged White people “to get the hell away from Black people.”
So on Sunday, “Dilbert” lost its space in numerous papers, including the NY Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and the Washington Post. Shortly after, Mr. Musk, 51, jumped into the waters, inserting himself into the precarious situation against all the media outlets to defend Adams. Musk boldly reasserted his disdain for mainstream journalists. The “media is racist,” Musk Tweeted, adding for a “very long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.” “Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America,” Musk wrote Sunday. “Maybe they can try not being racist.”
Musk later agreed with a tweet saying Adams’ comments “weren’t good” but had an “element of truth” to them. Musk has often denounced major news outlets for censoring alternative viewpoints, and in 2022 he even temporarily barred some of the journalists from Twitter. Some believe the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who boasts an estimated net worth of $190.8 billion in 2023, just garners more fans on his social media app via his fiery public remarks. Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist”. Musk has denied claims that say that since he has taken over Twitter, slurs against Black Americans and other minority groups grew on the platform.
As per the NY Times, advertisers who are looking for stability in the Twitter platform fear Musk’s leadership and comments may be too erratic. “He’s playing a version of fantasy C.E.O. around Twitter, without any real expertise or commitment to dealing with the complications,” said Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil rights group named Color of Change, which met with Musk last year to discuss Twitter’s handling of problematic and offensive posts. “These (advertising) companies, with their diversity programs, are all saying things that are in direct opposition to what Elon Musk is saying,” Robinson added. “These companies actually have a really good opportunity to leave both as a moral decision and as a business decision.”
On Monday, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, commented that he was “deeply disturbed” by Mr. Musk’s comments.
