Commentary

OPINION: ‘Dilbert’ Creator’s New Anti-Woke Strategy—’You Are A Hate Group!’

Adams use of a conservative poll as justification to make racist statements against Blacks is more than a little ridiculous. It’s also a little sad because Adams sounded serious. Adams used a poll from Rasmussen Reports that showed 53% of Black Americans agreed with the statement that it’s “OK to be white.”

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2023

Oakland Post

Emil Guillermo is a journalist, commentator and storyteller. See him at www.amok.com.

I confess, I haven’t seen Scott Adams’ Dilbert comic strip in ages. Who even gets a newspaper that carries it anymore? Alas, after this week, Dilbert is as dead as a dodo.

Hallelujah.

Adams use of a conservative poll as justification to make racist statements against Blacks is more than a little ridiculous. It’s also a little sad because Adams sounded serious.

Adams used a poll from Rasmussen Reports that showed 53% of Black Americans agreed with the statement that it’s “OK to be white.”

That statement, “OK to be white,” has a history of being associated with white supremacy movements, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

So, Adams asked aloud on his YouTube video, if 53% of Blacks in the poll were good with the statement about whites, what about the others who weren’t sure?

Adams said the 47% who disagreed or weren’t sure, made the conclusion clear to him.

Blacks were a hate group!

He wasn’t joking.

Adams concluded in a video rant, “The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”

Adams was justifying segregation. From a falsely accused hate group in his mind —Blacks.

And he seemed adamant. “Just get away,” he said. “Because there’s no fixing it.”

Does he mean there’s no fixing Clarence Thomas? Because I believe that.

Still, the only fixing needed seems to be Adams’ warped perception.

Just seems like quite a leap to extrapolate all that he does from a simple public opinion poll.

But Adams seems to be showcasing an emerging tactic of the anti-woke, pro-white movement.

Just call your enemy a “hate group.”

It gives white supremacists in their minds the leverage of moral superiority. Imagine, a group that hates more than they do?

This is pro-fascist, pro-white logic in action. It’s worked for Fox News and Trump, so far. We’ll see how long it lasts after the Dominion Voting machines defamation suit against the conglomerate. Adams is simply showing how easy it is to call your enemy a hater.

Fortunately, sane people see it for what it is. Newspapers that have been carrying Adams for decades are cancelling ‘Dilbert.’

Not that Adams seems to care about losing business or money. He has enough. After more decades creating a newspaper panel strip about a workplace dullard in a far from diverse and sensitive worksite, it may be that Adams was just looking for a way to go down with a bang, a way to say goodbye, as his strip was becoming more and more irrelevant.

And Adams only seems to be implying a half-hearted first amendment argument. Probably because it falls flat. No one stopped Adams from saying what he wanted to on his video. Besides, free speech laws apply to government business not to the private corporate world Adams deals in. Businesses have a right not to work with self-declared public racists. Nothing wrong there.

So, Adams was either bored with Dilbert, or he was just modeling behavior for the other male and female Ken/Karen-types, conservative whites who feel threatened by a diverse America, not just of Blacks but the entire BIPOC community.

Adams was the role model with the hot take: it’s OK to hate a hate group.

These are the sentiments of a paranoid anti-Woke crowd. Maybe Dilbert wants to run for office?

I really had to think hard the last time I even saw the Dilbert comic strip. I couldn’t recall if I’d ever seen a person of color in any Dilbert panel cartoon? Sadly, you can still get away with segregation in the comic strips. But sure enough, the first Black character in Dilbert, was Dave the engineer in 2022.

He’s much darker than Dilbert and in his introduction, Dave delivers the punchline, “I identify white.”

And I’m positive it wasn’t a matter of affirmative action, but of merit. Still, Dave needed the help of a white man. Adams had to draw it.

And maybe that’s the point. Dilbert, a white drone in a diverse work force, may have run out of funny things to say — that weren’t racist. In a work force of aggrieved whites quietly quitting, Adams had to go out loudly.

Adams’ rant was a nostalgic cry not for a brighter, optimistic America, but for the way things used to be in the 1950s. Only with faster computers. And decent Wi-Fi.

Adams and Dilbert deserve what they’re getting.

If they wanted to be cancelled, I’m more than happy to oblige.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist, commentator and storyteller. See him at www.amok.com.

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In 1974, Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter Visited the Home of Oakland Black Black Political Activist Virtual Murrell While Running for President

civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

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1 day ago

January 3, 2025

Oakland Post

Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.

By Virtual T. Murrell
Special to The Post

On his way to seeking the presidency, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter visited the Bay Area in his capacity as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1974.

A friend of mine, Bill Lynch, a Democrat from San Francisco, had been asked to host Carter, who was then relatively unknown. Seeking my advice on the matter, I immediately called my friend, civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, for his opinion.

Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Based on Julian’s comments, I agreed to host the governor. We picked him up at the San Francisco Airport. With his toothy smile, I could tell almost right away that he was like no other politician I had ever met. On his arrival, there was a message telling him to go to the VIP room, where he met then-Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

After leaving the airport, we went to a reception in his honor at the home of Paul “Red” Fay, who had served as the acting secretary of the Navy under President John Kennedy. (Carter, it turned out, had been himself a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the 1950s.)

The following afternoon, the Niagara Movement Democratic Club hosted a reception for Carter, which was a major success. Carter indicated that he would be considering running for president and hoped for our support if he did so.

As the event was winding down, I witnessed the most amazing moment: Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, was in the kitchen with my former wife, Irene, wearing an apron and busting suds! You would have to have been there to see it: The first and last time a white woman cleaned up my kitchen.

A few months later, President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.

On the heels of that scandal, Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976 represented integrity and honesty at a point in America’s history when he was just what the nation needed to lead as president of the United States.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

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3 days ago

January 2, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Racially Motivated Violence Against Black Teen Prompts $10 Million Claim Against LAUSD 

In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed 4 to 6 boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends. 

Published

6 days ago

December 30, 2024

Oakland Post

(Left to right) Civil Rights Attorney Caree Harper comforts the victim’s mother as she becomes emotional when describing the attacks on her son while her attorney Bradley C. Gage listens. Verdugo Hills High School on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tujunga, CA. (Solomon O. Smith /for California Black Media)

By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media

A distraught mother and her legal team announced a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Dec. 16, alleging that her son was the target of bullying because of his race.

“CS DOE is a 14-year-old African American student at Verdugo High School. He is a Ninth Grader,” reads a statement the plaintiff’s attorneys shared with California Black Media (CBM).

“Almost from the first day of class (in August 2024), CS DOE was targeted by Latino students who called him racial slurs, physically attacked him and threatened to stab him.”

The family’s identity has not yet been released to the public due to safety concerns, according to their attorneys Bradley C. Gage and Caree Harper. The student’s mother is identified only as A.O. in the complaint.

The first video, filmed in August, showed several non-Black students punching and kicking a Black student in a bathroom on campus while yelling racial slurs. The mother claims that the students who attacked her son were not punished, and the administration asked her to move her son to another school for his safety.

“They wanted him to leave the school without giving any disciplinary action towards those students,” said the student’s mother. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to finish. I wanted him to at least stay until the December winter break, and then I was going to transfer schools for him.”

Before she could enroll her son in a different school the attacks escalated.

CS DOE, a 14-year-old freshman, left the school but was followed by a car, according to Gage. Several individuals exited the vehicle, one with a “large butcher knife.” A fight ensued and two people were stabbed. The Black student was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon but was later released into his mother’s custody.

The high school freshmen is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Feb. 1, but Harper says she will reach out to the District Attorney and make the case against charging the young man.

“His mama had to go find him because he was hiding and fleeing for his very life,” said Harper.

According to the boy’s mother, the young student is still traumatized and has not been able to return to the area because it remains unsafe. Racial slurs have also been spray painted on their home.

“I’m sad. I’m devastated, you know,” said the mother. “I still feel like they’re after him. I still feel like they can kill him, possibly.”

The LAUSD and principal of Verdugo High School did not respond to CBM’s requests for comment.

If you are – or someone you know is – has experienced a hate crime or hate incident, please visit CAvsHate.org for more information and to find out what you can do about it.