People magazine calls beloved cartoonist Scott Adams 'disgraced' in story about his death

Beloved cartoonist and conservative commentator Scott Adams died on Tuesday and in response People Magazine chose to besmirch his memory with their own political agenda. With an obituary titled "Scott Adams, Disgraced Dilbert Creator, Dies at 68," the outlet claims that Adams was racist.

The outlet supports their headline by saying that "Adams often weighed in on politics in his later years and endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. He was also opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine and masking, per PolitiFact. NPR reported in 2023 that he once questioned the death toll of the Holocaust."

Adams was outspoken in favor of Donald Trump when he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015. He wrote posts on his blog revealing his prediction that Trump would win the 2016 general election. He turned his blog into a daily stream, Real Coffee with Scott Adams and his popularity grew.

He hosted many of those who are in the MAGA movement. But it was his comments on race that likely led to the People Magazine headline. In response to a Rasmussen poll finding that only 53% of black Americans agreed with the phrase "it's okay to be white."

"Well Rasmussen had a provocative little poll today. They said 'do you agree or disagree with the statement 'it's okay to be white'?' That was an actual question from Rasmussen," Adams said in 2023. He noted that 26% of black Americans surveyed did not believe that it was "okay to be white."

Adams joked that this basically made black Americans, as a group, a "hate group" because they had animus against white Americans. The comment that sent everyone into a tizzy is when he said that since black people are a hate group that hates white people, white people should stay away from them. That comment mirrors comments made by black activists saying that white people are obviously racist based entirely on their skin color.

Adams quoted former CNN host Don Lemon, who said outright that the problems he saw in black neighborhoods did not exist in the white neighborhoods, where he himself lived. In response to the poll, Adams said "I'm gonna back off from being helpful to black America because it doesn't seem like it pays off.

"Like I've been doing it all my life and the only outcome is I get called a racist. That's the only outcome. It makes no sense to help black Americans if you're white. It's over. Don't even think it's worth trying. We should be friendly, like I'm not saying start a war or you know do anything bad, nothing like that, I'm just saying get away just get away," he said.

People discussed these comments, leaving off the key context of what Adams said was his lifetime of advocacy for the black community in the United States. Following these comments, Adams' comic Dilbert was dropped by newspapers and the distributor. His books and books of comics skewering corporate American life are still available from numerous booksellers.

The original author of the article's name was removed following backlash against People on social media. People also deleted their post with a link to the article.