In short: Dilbert was cancelled by many newspapers in early 2023 after creator Scott Adams made racist remarks during a YouTube broadcast, including telling white people to distance themselves from Black people and labeling Black Americans as a “hate group.” This triggered widespread editorial withdrawals from major outlets and distributors. Details and context

• The catalyst: A video/posts by Scott Adams in which he asserted that Black Americans were a “hate group” and advised White people to “get the hell away” from Black people, which led to swift backlash from editors and publishers. This framing and language were widely condemned as racist and harmful. [sources summarize the remarks and editorial responses from major outlets]
• Immediate consequences in media: Dozens of newspapers across the United States halted or stopped publishing the Dilbert comic strip in print. The USA Today Network, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and several regional papers publicly announced withdrawals in the days following Adams’s remarks. This reflected a broad editorial decision not to carry the strip due to the creator’s statements. [sources document multiple outlets ending publication]
• Distributor action: The official distributor for Dilbert, which handles syndication to many papers, also severed its relationship with Adams, accelerating the withdrawal from print across networks that rely on Dilbert for syndicated content. [sources report distribution changes accompanying the editorial decisions]
• Public and industry response: The events sparked discussions about racism, satire, and responsibility in syndicated comics, with many noting the long-standing impact of the “It’s OK to be white” phrasing and its associations with online hate movements. [sources include analyses and commentary on the broader implications]

If you’d like, I can summarize this with date-by-date milestones, or pull quotes from major outlets to illustrate the timeline.