Comedian and black-ish star Deon Cole has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Scott Adams.
As previously reported, Adams, the famous cartoonist and creator of Dilbert, has received massive backlash following his racist comments about Black people after a Rasmussen poll shared that a slight majority of them agreed with the term “It’s okay to be white.” The poll results released late last month showcased that only 53% of Black people agreed with the phrase, while the other 47% were divided between “disagree” and “not sure.”
In addition to receiving scrutiny from social media users, Adams’ comic Dilbert has been dropped from hundreds of publications, including The Washington Post, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times, to name a few. On March 6, during an interview with DJ Vlad, Cole opened up about what he felt regarding the situation. The 51-year-old claimed that despite the uproar Adams’ remarks have caused, he honestly wasn’t surprised when the scandal happened, because he felt that people like Adams have always existed. Cole said,
“These people exist. I don’t understand why people be shocked when these type of things happen, whatever. These people exist. They exist. We wouldn’t have the world being the way that it is, if it wasn’t. I heard somebody talking about him making those comments, and I just was like, ‘dude, it happens.’ Me as a Black man, I walk around expecting it all day long, because it comes all the time. I’m not shocked at that, I think I would have been more shocked if [Adams] was like, ‘I love Black people and I’ll do whatever for them.’”
Later, Cole expressed that Adams’ stance on the poll only hurts the world and those trying to make it a better place, because he is spewing hate toward a group of people, instead of addressing issues that could implement positive changes. Cole also brought up his own view, that everyone is challenged to do their best with the life that they have been given, and contrasts his approach with that of Scott Adams, observing,
“You can’t hold that in. You are what you are. Everybody feel how they want to feel, my thing is, where does that get you?Where does that get you in life? … I just don’t get why everybody can’t realize that, and go, ‘hey man, we are all [a] special breed that are here, that can work together, to inspire each other. I know it sounds cliché and corny, but I honestly think like that. Like you do not have to be here, we do not have to be here. But since we are here, what do we do together to make a lasting impact for when we aren’t here? Let’s work together. But you hating me, what does that do?”
Towards the end of the conversation, Cole mentioned that the one thing he can’t wait for Adams to do is damage control, by talking to Black public leaders, and offering money to Black organizations or charities. Cole stated,
“I’m waiting to see what Black leader he is going to talk to, who he going to give money to. Who he’s going to sit down and spend a week with on some Black s**t, like everybody do [when they mess up]. When Black people mess up, you have to talk to a whole bunch of different people. You’ve got to give money. You have to do all this… I want to see [if Adams is] going to give to the NAACP. Is he going to sit down with Derek Johnson and have a conversation? Is he going to talk a class on Black culture? … I want to see what are the repercussions for saying what he said about Black people.”
At the time this article is being written, Adams has yet to apologize for his actions, and also plans to release Dilbert content on his subscription site. According to Adams’ Twitter post, the new content will debut on March 13.
