Elon Musk Weighs In as Dilbert Fallout Continues

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has picked up a high-profile defender after his comments about race in America: none other than Elon Musk. In replying to tweets about the flap, Musk wrote that it was the media, not Adams, who was being racist, reports Reuters. "For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians," the Twitter CEO tweeted. "Maybe they can try not being racist." The controversy stems from a "Real Coffee With Scott Adams" video on YouTube last week in which Adams talked about a poll showing that 26% of Black Americans disagree with the statement "It's okay to be white." Another 21% were not sure. In response, Adam said:

• “If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with white people … that’s a hate group. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, 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 … because there is no fixing this.”

Newspapers across the country ditched the Dilbert strip, and the AP reports that Adams "experienced possibly the biggest repercussion" yet on Sunday when strip distributor Andrews McMeel Universal also severed ties with Adams. “We are proud to promote and share many different voices and perspectives," said a company statement. "But we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate." Adams has defended himself from since the original video came out. “Lots of people are angry, but I haven’t seen any disagreement yet, at least not from anyone who saw the context," he texted the Washington Post. "Some questioned the poll data. That’s fair.” Adams wants people to watch his full videos and decide for themselves.

The AP and the Post add some context to the Rasmussen poll that began the controversy. The phrase "It's okay to be white" has been been adopted in recent years as a slogan by white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It's unclear if the people taking the poll were responding to that aspect of the phrase. As for Musk, he further wrote that Adams' "comments weren't good" but had an "element of truth" to them. In the wake of Musk's comments, the leader of the civil rights group Color of Change tells the Post that the group is renewing its call for advertisers to boycott Twitter. (More Scott Adams stories.)