‘Dilbert’ creator prompts fury saying he lost jobs and ‘my TV show for being white’

Cartoonist Scott Adams has received a barrage of criticisms from ‘woke’ Twitter users angered by his claim that he’s lost three jobs due to being white, one being on the cancelled adaptation of his comic strip 'Dilbert'.

“I lost my TV show for being white when UPN decided it would focus on an African-American audience,” Adams tweeted. “That was the third job I lost for being white. The other two in corporate America. (They told me directly.)”

Adams was responding to ‘Star Wars’ actor Ahmed Best (best known as the voice of Jar Jar Binks), who is black, tweeting about his struggles to get work in Hollywood compared to ‘Girls’ creator and star Lena Dunham, who is white.

Adams has faced enough criticism that thousands of tweets got the hashtag #dilbert trending, with many calling him a liar and even criticizing him for not creating diverse enough content.

“White privilege is having the season's second lowest-rated show in ALL of television and saying it got canceled because you're white. Poor Dilbert,” tweeted comedian and Resistance celebrity Nick Jack Pappas. 

Past comments from Scott explaining that the series was axed over declining ratings and repeated time slot jumps were also highlighted in an attempt to contradict his new claim.

The television adaptation of ‘Dilbert’ ran for two seasons on the now-defunct UPN from 1999 to 2000 for 30 episodes. 

In response to New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones (of the controversial 1619 Project) saying it would be “illegal” for him to be fired for his skin color — which would mean she also believes black people are never fired for their skin color because it’s “illegal” — the comic strip creator clarified that the network worked around the issue by saying they could not “promote” him because of his “color” and “gender.”

There’s no way to prove Adams’s claims without direct knowledge, but the network UPN was well-known in the early 2000s for a pivot to series featuring predominantly black casts, from ‘Girlfriends’ to ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ to ‘One on One.’ 

Multiple think pieces over the last few years have highlighted and celebrated the network’s focus on programming centered around black casts, which became one of the channel’s main strategies following ‘Dilbert’ and several other shows being canceled.

Filling a niche not being met by other networks helped the fledgling channel survive until it eventually merged with WB to turn into the currently-running The CW. 

Adams has been a frequent target of the left over his views on President Donald Trump, whom he has called a “master persuader” and praised on multiple occasions. He’s said his views on Trump have “tainted” his brand in Hollywood, making any reboot of his ‘Dilbert’ series unlikely, though the comic strip continues to run to this day.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!