Dilbert comic strip dropped by US media over creator's racist tirade

Scott Adams's comic strip is known for its satirical office humour, where engineer Dilbert is the main character

Many US newspapers including the Washington Post have dropped the long-running Dilbert cartoon strip after its creator made racist comments.

In a video on YouTube, Scott Adams, who is white, said black Americans were part of a "hate group" and that white people should "get the hell away" from them.

Mr Adams, 65, later acknowledged that his career was destroyed.

He said most of his income would be gone by next week.

Dilbert has been a mainstay of the funny pages of America's newspapers, and features a put-upon office worker and a talking dog, who together take aim at the fads of corporate culture.

Among those media outlets that have dropped the Dilbert cartoon strip are the USA Today network, which operates dozens of newspapers, and the Los Angeles Times.

The Washington Post said Mr Adams' remarks promoted segregation.

His comments were made in response to a survey conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports in which people were asked to agree or disagree with the phrase: "It's OK to be white."

The phrase is believed to have emerged in 2017 as a trolling campaign and has since been used by white supremacists.

According to the poll, 53% of black respondents agreed with the statement, but 26% disagreed and others were not sure.

Mr Adams said that those that disagreed were a "hate group".

"I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people… because there is no fixing this," he said.

Darrin Bell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning black cartoonist, described Mr Adams as a disgrace.

Dilbert - which is written and illustrated by Mr Adams - was first published in 1989.