Over the years, American cartoonist Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, attracted controversy for comments about race and gender, among other issues. In a 2011 blog post he wrote: “The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone.” Adams also became a vocal supporter of conservative policies, and his views began to appear in Dilbert. Notably, a number of storylines were critical of wokeness (woke originated as a term for awareness of social and racial injustice but later became a polarizing label often used pejoratively).
In 2018 Adams debuted Real Coffee With Scott Adams, a podcast that livestreamed on YouTube. On the program he interviewed various guests and spoke on current events, including politics. In 2023 Adams faced a backlash when he said, among other things, “the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.” He also noted that “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people,” then they should be called a “hate group.” His remarks were widely seen as racist—Adams claimed that he was being hyperbolic—and many newspapers dropped Dilbert.