Scott Adams and the race to the bottom

"Don't be a racist. Hate everyone," goes an old joke about bigotry. On a more serious note, that is the prescription the celebrated American cartoonist Scott Adams of 'Dilbert' fame is offering -- with an even greater license: Everyone should be free to hate everyone else to get ahead in life. "I'm just saying: as a personal, career decision, you should absolutely be racist whenever it's to your advantage, and that's for men, for women, for black or white, Asian or Hispanic," he said in remarks last week that eventually led to his cartoon strip being dropped by hundreds of newspapers across the United States.

Of course, "clarifications" followed, including the familiar "remarks were taken out of context" excuse. He went on to argue, among other things, that policies such as affirmative action, a practice of favouring groups regarded as disadvantaged or subject to discrimination, were also racist. A black person taking advantage of the policy is making a "racist career decision" and he would "totally back" that. "If you're making decisions for your own personal life, you can be as racist as you want. That's not illegal and it's definitely not unethical. I make two main points: 1. Treat everyone as an individual (no discrimination). 2. Avoid any group that doesn't respect you." he argued.

Somehow, the contradiction between treating everyone as an individual and his suggestion that, collectively, "White people... get the hell away from black people" (essentially recommending segregation) seemed to escape him. He himself had moved to a white enclave to get away from black people, he disclosed.

Adams wasn't always like this although there was a dark hint of white exclusivism and primacy in him even as far back as the 1990s. In 1996, he introduced into Dilbert the character Asok, from the now famous Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) which wasn't as well known those days to reflect the growing workplace diversity in America. In a 2003 interview with this columnist, Adams explained that he got the idea of Asok from a co-worker of the same name when he worked at Pacific Bell. "I modelled a character after him for the Dilbert strip because I wanted to add greater variety and bring an Indian to the mix to reflect the diversity of the American corporate world," he said.

Asked why it had to be an Indian, Adams elaborated, "Well, it was impossible to add an African-American. When you are as white as I am, you have to be careful. To make a comic strip character funny, you have to make him flawed, and that is a sensitive issue. I'm not sure other communities would have taken it well. Asok's flaw is that he is inexperienced, although he is smart and intelligent. It's a gamble that has paid off."

In hindsight, the phrase "when you are as white as I am" should have raised a red flag. Here was a writer, a social commentator, who appeared to be keenly aware of his whiteness and white exclusivity, and the handicap it placed on him in showing flaws in black people. Evidently, using an Indian as a strawman was fine because there were very few of them in the 1990s and there wouldn't be much trouble.

As it turned out, Asok surfaced occasionally in Dilbert strips, often as a subject of derision despite his brilliance, most notably in an episode where he talks of his ability to heat up a cup of tea by just holding it to his forehead and imagining fire. Funny alright, but underlying the jibe was Adams' deep resentment over being passed up for promotion at Pacific Bell and Crocker National Bank, where he worked earlier, because he was white. In one strip, he has Asok saying he got promoted to senior engineer because "I told my boss there wasn't much diversity in those positions" – suggesting it was not based on merit. It is another matter that today, the CEOs of Microsoft, Google, FedEx, and Starbucks among other companies, are all Indians, many from IITs, and they did not come to occupy the C-suite due to affirmative action.

• Opinion