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Cartoonist Scott Adams recently appeared in a podcast interview with social media personality Hotep Jesus in the wake of his racist controversy, which sparked major outrage online.
The Dilbert creator landed in hot waters last week after making some racially questionable comments while discussing an “Is it ok to be White?” poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports, on his Real Coffee with Scott Adams YouTube show.
During the show, he noted that 53 percent of African-Americans agreed with the phrase “It’s OK to be white” and highlighted those who did not agree.
Scott Adams also revealed that he identified as Black because he likes to be “on the winning team,” before saying that he realized “nearly half of that team doesn’t think I’m okay to be white.”
The cartoonist further stated that he was “going to re-identify as white” because he doesn’t “want to be a member of a hate group.” Adams also asked Caucasian individuals to stay away from African-Americans:
“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. Just get the f*** away. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed.”
The comments sparked immediate backlash on social media, with many canceling Scott Adams for his controversial opinion. Days later, the cartoonist appeared on Hotep Jesus’ show and discussed several points from his statement.
What is known about Hotep Jesus?
Hotep Jesus is an African-American media personality, performance artist, marketer, and author. He was born on October 1, 1980, in Brooklyn, New York. He was named Bryan Sharpe, but adopted his stage name after an alleged heckler asked him if he was “some kind of Hotep Jesus” on Twitter.
The internet personality began his career on Twitter and gained popularity by posting viral tweets. In 2011, 50 Cent’s manager Chris Lighty asked Hotep to work as a marketer for the rapper’s energy drink.
Sharpe claimed that it was during his association with the hip-hop industry that he had a “spiritual awakening.” Shortly after, he also helped with the launch of a coconut water sports drink for NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony.
The marketer also continued to garner online attention and came to be known for his conspiracy theories and debatable views. He claimed that the majority of African-Americans were originally Native Americans, the Atlantic slave trade was a myth, that Carthaginian General Hannibal was a black African, and that Rome was previously dependent on America for food, among other theories.
Hotep Jesus eventually became the leader of the Hotep movement and has been associated with the Hotep Nation. In 2019, he appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to share his views on African-American history.
The media personality has also garnered popularity through his YouTube videos and currently has over 81K subscribers on the platform.
What did Scott Adams say during Hotep Jesus podcast interview?
Scott Adams appeared on Hotep Jesus’ podcast interview to discuss a few statements that have landed him in the middle of a major controversy.
He began the conversation by discussing his racial identity, and joked that he identified as an African-American despite being Caucasian to get “the best of both worlds.”
Shortly after, Adams said that the actual reason behind his identity came from the fact that he spent “tons of time working on things that would benefit the Black community.”
He also revealed that he was left-wing, as opposed to theories about him being right-wing, and shared that he even volunteered to work for Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the past. Adams also claimed that BLM isn’t legitimate and said that “personally found out there was money grift” involved.
Scott Adams also spoke about Reparation Arguments and said Republicans should work with the African-American community on areas like education so that it can be beneficial for the next generation of African-American kids.
The cartoonist also urged everyone to come together to save the next generation. Adams further addressed the purpose behind his controversial statements and did not share the comments for laugh, clout, reputation or financial reasons.
He then acknowledged that Dilbert was being canceled across the country and noted that he was being canceled by media organizations like CNN and TMZ, including the biggest newspaper that carried his work so far.
Adams said he would be surprised to see himself in the business “few days from now.” When Hotep Jesus commented that he felt that Scott Adams had made the remarks because he “wanted to create room for conversation,” the latter replied:
“I discovered that the price of free speech is really high and there are only a few people willing to pay it so I decided to pay it so that I could extend the conversation to something that everybody needs to hear.”
Adams said that he noticed that people were very mad at him “all day long” and eventually began the cancelations. However, he claimed that no one disagreed with his point despite the outrage:
“To the best of my knowledge nobody has disagreed with the point I made and I keep asking if they disagree with the point and they sort of avoid that question”
The artist went on to confirm that he was against any form of discrimination:
“I am opposed to any form of discrimination against individuals. You know not your neighbor, not the person applying for job, you know marry who you want, date who you want, [be] friends with who you want, I have no opinion on that except everybody should be treated as individuals. Period. From a constitutional legal sense everybody has to be treated the same way period.”
When Hotep asked if Scott Adams’ move was "irresponsible," the latter said he only did it “broaden the conversation”:
“There was a purpose to it, if you didn’t know the purpose it would look that way. So anybody who didn’t know why I did it that would be a reasonable interpretation, yes. But if you knew why I did it which is to broaden this conversation because until you can talk honestly about any of the race stuff how can you possibly do anthing?”
Scott Adams then defended his stance by saying that a world that holds the narrative of white people being the “basis of the problem of not only past discrimination, but perpetuating ongoing systemic racism,” it is only fair that people would “want to get away from that.”
He continued:
“So I would broaden the conversation to say it’s not about black people its about woke people too so if you are concerned about woke people taking you down you want to stay away from woke people.”
The cartoonist also said that in a world in which “people are learning that white people are bad it doesn’t seem crazy that white people would want to avoid that entire environment.”
As Hotep noted that Adams is the “new hero of white nationalists,” the latter said that he “disavowed them completely for agreeing with me for all the wrong reasons.”
Netizens react to Hotep Jesus’ interview with Scott Adams
Scott Adams has continued to make news ever since he came under fire for his comments about African-Americans based on a “is it ok to be white” poll conducted by Rasmussen Report.
Amid the ongoing backlash, the cartoonist appeared in a podcast interview with Hotep Jesus to explain his statement, discuss his stance, and share his reaction to the public cancelation alongside other sensitive topics.
As the interview went viral on social media, it left netizens divided. Social media users also took to Twitter to share their reaction to the interview.
Some acknowledged Scott Adams’s reasoning and explanation:
Some continued to call him out for his words and actions:
Meanwhile, others praised Hotep Jesus for conducting the interview in a calm and positive manner:
As reactions continue to pour in online, hundreds of newspapers across the U.S. have announced that they will no longer collaborate with Scott Adams, and will refrain from publishing Dilbert.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Penguin Random House imprint, Portfolio, has also decided it will not publish Adams' upcoming book, Reframe Your Brain, which was scheduled to be released in September.
