Comment by lisper
2 days ago
> The racism and the provocations were always there
Were they? Can you cite an example? Because I also grew up with Dilbert, and I was never aware of it.
2 days ago
> The racism and the provocations were always there
Were they? Can you cite an example? Because I also grew up with Dilbert, and I was never aware of it.
It's in Chapter 1 of his autobiography. He used to work at a bank in the 80s, and was turned down for a managerial or executive position (can't remember) which went to an Asian candidate. He was certain it was due to DEI (in the 80s!) and quit the corporate world to become a cartoonist.
The strip that got him dropped in 2022 featured a black character (first in the history of the cartoon) who "identifies as white".
> He was certain it was due to DEI
He was told explicitly by his boss that they weren't promoting white men.
> The strip that got him dropped in 2022 featured a black character (first in the history of the cartoon) who "identifies as white".
That wasn't what got him dropped, he did an interview with Chris Cuomo where he explained what actually happened and why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_bv1jfYYu4
> He was told explicitly by his boss that they weren't promoting white men.
This is what he claims but I find it very difficult to believe. Why would management even say such a thing and expose themselves to a lawsuit? Let alone "not promoting white men". It's preposterous.
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Both of these rebuttals seem they rely on taking Adams' word for it?
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Even if we believed that, why is one such experience an understandable trigger to turn to fascism? It is nice double standard, because those who are not white men are expected to accept similar unfairness without becoming fascists themselves.
I really really doubt his boss would have told him they weren't promoting white men. It is asking to get sued.
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How is this racism? It's a complaint about alleged racism and a pun on corporate "Identifies as black" DEI events. He is not saying anything negative about asian candidate or black character.
Reads more like it makes fun of trans people to me.
It mocks diversity policies by presenting race as arbitrary and surface-level, rather than some deeply unchangeable thing that pervades every aspect of your being. Since diversity policies are a way to push back against judging people differently based on race (aka racism), mocking them is inherently supportive of racism.
And as the other commenter says, it also mocks trans people. By applying their language to something presented as arbitrary and surface-level.
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> He was certain it was due to DEI (in the 80s!)
Why wouldn’t it have been that in that decade? The concept of DEI (whether or not it was specifically called as such) has been around at least far back as the 1980s. I think it actually goes back even to the 1960s.
This wasn't when he got dropped. He got dropped in 2016 when he said he supported Trump. In an interview on CNN shortly after this, he talks about how all of his corporate gigs dried up and newspapers tried to cancel him. He also later talked about Venture capitalists dropping him as well because of this.
"it was due to DEI (in the 80s!)"
DEI used to be known as affirmative action in those days. I see so many people try to claim that it never happened, when many of us around during this time experienced it.
"The strip that got him dropped in 2022 featured a black character (first in the history of the cartoon) who "identifies as white"."
While I don't see a problem with this, this was a fuck you to corporations and newspapers that dropped him merely because of his political opinions, an inhumane and bigoted tactic by liberals. This is one of the reasons why I always respected him. He was willing to fight for his beliefs and never backed down.
> an inhumane and bigoted tactic by liberals.
The free market is neither inhumane, bigoted or liberal in nature.
It's a big liberal thing to feign ignorance and even act shocked to hear about something they have seen with their own eyes. They will also pretend not to understand what you are saying when you are perfectly clear in your wording. I fundamentally don't understand the psychology behind it and IMO the correct response is to just treat those people with contempt.
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If you want to dig down deeper into his past, you can listen to a 2 part episode of "Behind the Bastards" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyEkHqP65c
Dilbert May 2, 2022 is provocative.
Didn't he get dropped a year after that? The quote "the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people, just get the f*k away... because there is no fixing this" happened in 2023.
Can't argue with that, but Dilbert first appeared in 1989, and Adams publicly jumped the shark in February 2023. So May 2022 is hardly "always there".
I think you are right on the "wasn't always there" front, though perhaps the commenter making the claim has some early work in mind.
Personally, the Reddit AMAs (including sock puppets) were a pre-2023 indicator of his enKanyefication. Endorsing Donald Trump (who encompasses the stupidity and lack of self-awareness of the Dilbert antagonists) was another, though this may have been driven by a need for money/relevance.
Huh. I would have thought something like that would be in response to Rachel Dolezal, but the Wikipedia page for "Transracial (identity)" says her fifteen minutes of fame was way back in 2015.
What was it?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The+One+joke
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/05/03/dilbert...
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