Penguin Random House drops ‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams’ new self-help book ‘Reframe Your Brain’ as cartoonist worth $75M is dumped by his book agent – after bigoted rant that black people are ‘hate group’
- Penguin Random House has dropped Dilbert creator Scott Adams’s new self-help book that was set to be published in September
- His book agent also dropped him as a client, the 65-year-old cartoonist tweeted
- They are just the latest agencies to drop Adams after after he described people who are black as members of ‘a hate group’
Penguin Random House has dropped Dilbert creator Scott Adams’s new self-help book following a racist rant in which he branded black people a ‘hate group.’
Adams’s new book Reframe Your Brain was set to be published in September by Portfolio — the business imprint of Penguin Random House, but on Monday the embattled cartoonist tweeted: ‘My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist.’
‘My book agent canceled me too,’ he noted.
They are just the latest agencies to drop the 65-year-old after he described people who are black as members of ‘a hate group’ from which white people should ‘get away’ in an online video.
Major newspapers across the country dropped the Dilbert comic strip for which he became famous and earned $75million in the aftermath.
And on Sunday, comics distributor Andrews McMeel Universal announced it would no longer work with the cartoonist either.
Scott Adams, 65, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip is worth an estimated $75million
On Monday he announced that his new book ‘Reframe Your Brain’ will not be published by Penguin Random House as was expected
Adams lamented the loss of his book publisher online, noting that he also lost his book agent
Adams lamented the loss of his book publisher online, while claiming he still has ‘not seen any disagreement about my point of view.’
It remains unclear what effect the decision to pull the book will have on Adams’ $75million fortune. He has previously published books like Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America and How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Portfolio and Adams’ talent agent for comment.
The creator of the long-running comic that pokes fun at office-place culture found himself under fire last week for comments he made on his livestreamed YouTube program, Real Coffee with Scott Adams.
In the show, he referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement ‘It’s OK to be white.’
Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26percent of black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure.
Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are black as members of a ‘hate group’ or a ‘racist hate group’ and said he would no longer ‘help black Americans.’
‘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,’ Adams said on his Wednesday show.
‘Just get the f**k away. Wherever you have to go, just get away.’
Adams has come under fire after he posted a video online in which he warned white people to ‘get the hell away from black people’ and labeled them a ‘hate group’
Almost immediately after the comments were made, several newspapers across the country announced they were dropping the Dilbert comic strip.
In a statement, Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The New York Times said: ‘We have decided to no longer publish the ‘Dilbert’ comic strip in our international print edition following racist comments by Scott Adams.’
She noted that Dilbert was published in the international print edition but not in the U.S. edition or online.
The Washington Post also said it would stop publishing Dilbert in light of ‘Scott Adams’s recent statements promoting segregation,’ although the strip could not be prevented from running in some forthcoming print editions.
The Los Angeles Times cited Adams’ ‘racist comments’ while announcing Saturday that Dilbert will be discontinued Monday in most editions and that its final run in the Sunday comics — which are printed in advance — will be March 12.
The San Antonio Express-News, which is part of Hearst Newspapers, said Saturday it will drop the Dilbert comic strip, effective Monday, ‘because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.’
The USA Today Network tweeted Friday that it will stop publishing Dilbert ‘due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.’
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and other publications that are part of media company Advance Local also announced they are dropping Dilbert.
‘This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve,’ Plain Dealer Editor Chris Quinn wrote. ‘We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.’
Christopher Kelly, vice president of content for NJ Advance Media, wrote that the news organization believes in ‘the free and fair exchange of ideas.’
‘But when those ideas cross into hate speech, a line must be drawn,’ Kelly wrote.
Then on Sunday, Andres McMeel Universal Chairman Hugh Andrews and CEO and President Andy Sareyan said in a joint statement the syndication company was ‘severing our relationship’ with Adams.
They noted that the company supports free speech, but the comments by the cartoonist were not compatible with the core values of the publisher based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Newspapers across the country dropped the Dilbert comic strip following Adams’ comments
The comic strip Dilbert, first published in 1989, satirizes white-collar corporate culture
Still, Adams has only doubled down on his claims, posting another video over the weekend in which he urged ‘everyone’ to embrace racism in the workplace as he tried to justify his remarks.
‘I’m just saying: as a personal, career decision, you should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage, and that’s for men, for women, for black or white, Asian or Hispanic,’ he said.
Adams tried to explain that his remarks ‘was the opposite of racism, but also racism.’
‘Who disagrees with the idea that you should stay away from pockets of people where the odds are, they’re not going to like you,’ he told viewers, once again claiming that he would be a victim of false allegations.
He then used his interpretation of former Vice President Mike Pence’s rule about dining with other women to justify his argument, saying: ‘The Mike Pence rule would say, you wanna get some distance. Now is that racist? Yeah, by definition.
‘But it’s racist in a personal success context, which is completely allowable.’
And on the topic of ‘allowable’ racism, Adams urged anyone to take advantage of bigoted practices to reap rewards.
One such practice, Adams argued, was affirmative action, claiming that a black person taking advantage of the policy is a ‘racist career decision’ that he ‘would totally back.’
‘If you’re making decisions for your own personal life, you can be as racist as you want,’ he said. ‘That’s not illegal and it’s definitely not unethical.’
Adams claimed on Sunday that he was making the same points Don Lemon made in a 2013 clip, in which he advised the black community to pick up their pants and stop littering
He tweeted on Sunday: ‘CNN canceled me for agreeing with Don Lemon’
He also claimed that embattled CNN host Don Lemon shared his views, tweeting out a 2013 clip of the host offering advice to the black community and writing: ‘CNN canceled me for agreeing with Don Lemon.’
In the clip, which has been viewed 3.7million times since it was first published on Twitter on February 19, Don Lemon advises members of the black community in America to pull up their pants and pick up trash.
‘Cause black people, if you really want to fix the problem, here’s just five things you should think about doing,’ the CNN host said on-air in 2013. ‘Here’s number five, pull up your pants.’
He explained in the two-minute clip that the trend of wearing baggy jeans with one’s boxers sticking out has its roots in the prison system, where guards take away inmates’ belts so they cannot be used as a weapon.
‘And then it evolved into which role a prisoner would have during male-on-male sex,’ said Lemon, who is openly gay. ‘The one with the really low pants is a submissive one — you get my point?’
Lemon then went on to advise members of the black community not to use the N-word when talking to each other, and to pick up the trash in their neighborhood.
‘Now number three, respect where you live,’ he said. ‘Start small by not dropping trash, littering in your own communities.
‘I’ve lived in several predominantly white neighborhoods in my life — I rarely witnessed people littering,’ Lemon claimed. ‘I live in Harlem now, it’s a historically black neighborhood. Every single day I see adults and children dropping trash on the ground when a garbage can is just feet away.’
Lemon also advised members of the black community to stay in school, telling his audience: ‘You want to break the cycle of poverty? Stop telling kids they’re “acting white” because they go to school or they’re speaking proper English.’
And his final piece of advice, which he said was the most important, was ‘Just because you can have a baby doesn’t mean you should, especially without planning for one or getting married first.’
He cited a study showing that more than 72percent of babies born in the African American community at the time were born to unmarried parents, which he says ‘means absent fathers.
‘And studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison, and the cycle continues.’
Elon Musk, though, came to Adams’ aid, weighing in that he believed the media was ‘racist’ to white and Asian people in a thread on his Twitter page.
The Twitter CEO wrote: ‘For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites and Asians.
‘Same thing happened with elite college and high schools in America.
‘Maybe they can try not being racist.’
A 2022 Pew Research Center study into newsroom diversity in the United States found ‘there is broader agreement that organizations generally treat staff fairly, regardless of age, gender, or race and ethnicity.’
White and Asian employees are among the groups most likely to say their organization treats everyone fairly.
The study also notes younger staff show ‘greater racial, ethnic and gender diversity’ than has traditionally been the case.
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