“Dilbert” was dropped by its distributor and hundreds of newspapers in 2022–2023 mainly because of public backlash to what many outlets described as racist comments by its creator, Scott Adams, especially a February 2023 YouTube rant about Black Americans.

Quick Scoop: What Happened

  • In February 2023, Adams posted a video reacting to a Rasmussen poll, calling Black Americans who disagreed with the “It’s okay to be white” slogan a “hate group” and saying white people should “get the hell away from Black people.”
  • Major newspaper chains and individual papers (e.g., USA Today Network, The Washington Post , The Los Angeles Times) quickly announced they would stop running Dilbert , citing racist or hateful remarks as the reason.
  • Andrews McMeel Syndication, the distributor, then severed ties with Adams and ended distribution of the strip, essentially “canceling” Dilbert from mainstream newspaper comics pages.

Earlier Tensions Before 2023

Even before the 2023 blow‑up, the strip had been quietly shrinking in reach.

  • In 2022, Lee Enterprises dropped Dilbert from dozens of its newspapers as it revamped comics pages; Adams suggested that his mocking of ESG (environmental, social, governance) policies might have played a role, though that was not formally confirmed.
  • The San Francisco Chronicle had already removed the strip after storylines joking about reparations, signaling growing discomfort with its direction.

Why People Say “Dilbert Got Cancelled”

Different groups frame the cancellation differently.

  • Many media organizations and critics:
    • Emphasize that Adams’ comments were overtly racist and incompatible with their standards, so dropping the strip was a values‑based business decision.
  • Adams and some supporters:
    • Portray it as “cancellation culture” and an attack on free speech or commentary about race, arguing he was punished for provocative but honest speech.

In Plain Terms

  • The immediate trigger for Dilbert ’s widespread removal was Adams’ widely condemned 2023 remarks about Black Americans, which many outlets labeled racist and discriminatory.
  • Long‑running concerns about the strip’s increasingly culture‑war tone and earlier controversies likely made newspapers quicker to cut ties once the backlash hit.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.