By
Let’s begin with the supersized panic of the American right.
Post-Obama backlash may have escalated the panic more than 10 years ago, but then Donald Trump poured gasoline on the freakout.
It was Trump who unveiled the racism and misogyny that was always there, but threw it wide open — normalized the depths of the country’s prejudice, even made it fashionable for conservatives. Their vision of America crystallized online and within our government, too: the post-Trump age of open fascism.
We saw open demonstrations of hate, from white nationalists using tiki torches to light up Charlottesville to the attempted Confederate takeover of the Capitol. Once the Pandora’s box of bigotry is open, things get out of control quickly — and in a horrifying way.
People don’t even feel bad about their anti-Blackness these days. They’re actually kind of proud of it.
Case in point: “Dilbert,” the widely syndicated comic strip about office culture that appeared in 2,000 newspapers around the world. You may be familiar with the comic but maybe not its creator, Scott Adams.
Frankly, I had no idea who the guy was … well, until he went on a racist rant on YouTube last Wednesday.
OK, there’s a lot to unpack there. The unabashed anti-Blackness and racism, but also this country’s long history of dubbing Black people as the hateful, violent ones — while also exposing this weird, offensive belief that white people need to “get something” out of helping others.
Hundreds of newspapers, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today, announced they would stop publishing “Dilbert” after Adams’ tirade.
Also, that part the “Dilbert” guy mentioned about a poll? He was talking about a poll by Rasmussen Reports, the right-wing polling outfit, that “found” 53% of Black Americans agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.”
Why would a poll even ask that? Because it’s…
Read the full article here
