Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Defends Republican Official’s Obama Chimp Email

[cali]

by Tommy Christopher | 9:52 am, April 20th, 2011

<snip>

Ironically, Adams’ defense of Davenport is embedded in a lengthy manifesto about the deleterious PR effects of sticky internet rumors:

The same thing is happening today with a Republican official who emailed some friends a humorous photo of President Obama’s face on a chimp and a punch line about his birth certificate. If your only context is what the Internet says about this story, you assume it’s a typical racist act by a Republican who is already guilty by association. But if I add the context that Googling “George Bush monkey” gives you over 3 million hits, and most of them are jokes where President Bush’s face is transposed on a monkey, you see what’s really going on. Democrats and advocates of civil rights are using the media to further an agenda at the expense of a woman who was probably so non-racist that the photo in question didn’t set off her alarms as being a career-ending risk.

Even though Adams isn’t the guy behind Office Space, and has some strange ideas about how to deal with angry ladies, he deserves to have this explained to him.

Here’s the thing. President Bush was a white dude, so calling him a chimp, while not very nice, doesn’t evoke dehumanizing racial stereotypes that have historically fueled murder, rape, and enslavement. President Obama is a black man, so picturing him as a chimpanzee does evoke dehumanizing racial stereotypes that have historically fueled murder, rape, and enslavement. Scott Adams can Google President Bush until Dilbert’s tie straightens out, and he’s never going to find a legitimate analog to this insult.

<snip>

http://www.mediaite.com/online/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-defends-republican-officials-obama-chimp-email/

[ixion]

1. Who knew that the Scott Adams' alter ego in 'Dilbert' was the pointy-haired boss

:rofl:

[JVS]

22. LOL

[Bake]

2. Dilbert hasn't been funny in years.

In fact, maybe never.

BAke

[monmouth]

3. Time for a writing campaign to get his strip out of my paper....n/t

[Modern_Matthew]

4. How evil of him to take an objective look at current events. nt

[cali]

7. say what?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[girl gone mad]

5. Maybe Adams should get checked for a brain tumor.

This is the type of rant I would associate with dementia.

[geardaddy]

6. Adams is a tool.

[Ikonoklast]

9. Adams has been a Libertarian idiot his entire life.

Not that the two are mutually exclusive, mind you.

[nomb]

10. I was almost going to defend

the Dilbert creator. Art in a post-modern color blind world is not automatically de-facto racist, you know the thinking argument.


THEN,,,, I saw the cartoon in the link, which IS NOT one in question that was defended.


Holy Smokes! I've never seen anything more racist in my life. I don't even care now what the Dilbert creator was defending ... OMG! Where the fuck does anyone get the idea that that could ever be even fucking borderline acceptable? Ever? That would have been racist in 19fucking25! WTF? Where are these people?

[Terra Alta]

11. Dilbert is boring

And Scott Adams is a moron.. how anyone can defend that racist crap is beyond me.

[Zebedeo]

12. "President Bush was a white dude."

Uh, Obama is half white, too. So is portraying him as a monkey half-OK?

This seems silly.

[SoulSearcher]

13. Of course, there are these guys

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8285018#8285088

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8285018#8285153

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8285018#8287516

Recent fun from a few weeks ago!

[lunatica]

14. He must have a stupid quota to use up

[spanone]

15. racist defending racist

so it's a democrats/media conspiracy....what a pantload

[Chorophyll]

16. Scott Adams is now on my shit list, twice.

In recent weeks he's defended racism AND misogyny. Way to go, Dilhole.

[krispos42]

17. Bush is not of African ancestry

Ergo, his ancestry not the reason we was called The Chimp.


If black Americans called Bush "The Cracker Kid", then that would also be racist. If black Americans called Obama "The Cracker Kid", that wouldn't be racist.

[slackmaster]

18. I never thought it was OK to equate Bush with a chimpanzee

Unfairness to chimpanzees notwithstanding, Bush is a human being.

[Liquorice]

19. It would be racist to call Obama the cracker kid. nt

[SoulSearcher]

20. You are speaking for all People of Color,

I assume.

[WinkyDink]

21. Oh,man; I happen to be a big-time Dilbert fan. Scott, WHY?? Is your idol Al Capp?

[Very_Boring_Name]

23. Me too

[Shandris]

24. Personally, I don't think of a dehumanizing stereotype when anyone's...

...face is imposed on a chimp. Seems like a stretch of the imagination, but if it offends black people then I'm in favor of it being considered out-of-bounds.

The chimp to me symbolizes someone who does what he's told, or mimics ('apes') another, be it a group, a person, a leader, etc. This seemed to fit Bush rather well for instance. He was mimicking intelligence. :P