Scott Adams, the creator of the famous “Dilbert” comic strip, is no stranger to controversy. He caused a stir in 2016 when he predicted (correctly) that Donald Trump would win the presidency. He was canceled by a number of newspapers last year because he took on the leftist environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies overtaking so many corporations. So it’s no surprise that he’s now getting canceled even harder for expressing supposed wrongthink about race.

Adams said black Americans are a “hate group” and that white Americans should “get the hell away from black people.”

Oof, that sure does sound racist … until you understand a little context.

Adams was commenting on a recent Rasmussen poll that revealed many black Americans are guilty of exactly the kind of thinking the Left claims is racism when white people do it. (Is it racist? Well, we suppose that depends on intent.)

Rasmussen asked for responses to the statement, “It’s okay to be white,” which, according to Rasmussen’s Mark Mitchell, the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled hate speech. While 72% of Americans overall agreed either strongly or somewhat, just 53% of blacks agree, 26% disagree, and 21% are not sure. All those numbers reveal that the vilification of whites is sinking in, even for roughly 7% of whites.

Here’s a fundamental truth that 100% of Americans should agree with: It’s okay to be whatever color your skin actually is. We Christians would add that’s because God made us, though, for obvious reasons, that statement wouldn’t get 100% support.

By the way, what happens when someone thinks it’s not okay to be white and tries to change him or herself? Ask Rachel Dolezal.

With the fuller context, here’s what Adams really said last week on his YouTube show:

If nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people — according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll — that’s a hate group. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And 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.

Our point is not to defend what Adams said. In fact, he sounded just like the leftists who routinely divide Americans by race, telling blacks to get away from whites because whites are oppressive haters. Ben Shapiro agrees: “What Scott Adams said was racist. And here’s the thing: if you substituted the word ‘white’ for ‘black’ in his rant, you would immediately be given a top editorial post at the New York Times.”

As Elon Musk rightly noted, “The media is racist. … Maybe they can try not being racist.” Adams putting the shoe on the other foot doesn’t make his statement less offensive, though that could very well have been his intended point.

In any case, he doubled down in an unfortunate way. “You should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage. Every one of you should be open to making a racist personal career decision,” he said. Moreover, “You should also avoid any group that doesn’t respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine.”

At the same time, Adams said we should “treat everyone as an individual (no discrimination),” and he was reacting — or, rather, over-reacting — to actual racism from black respondents to the Rasmussen polls. If they truly think it’s not okay to be white, that’s textbook racism. Such racism is taught in our schools via CRT and the like, so it’s little wonder that many folks simply regurgitate what they’ve been told.

As for Adams, most artists, creators, and celebrities who hold noxious views aren’t canceled. He simply made fun of the Left too much for this to be tolerated.

The larger point for our culture is that all Americans need to be taught to distinguish between behavior and identity games. Being a certain race is not a problem at all. Condemning others simply because they’re a certain race is a problem. It seems so simple, and yet…

(Updated)