OPINION:
In a recent NewsNation interview, author and professor Michael Eric Dyson suggested that “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams be brushed with barbecue sauce, slapped on a grill and charbroiled (“Newspapers dump ‘Dilbert’ after cartoonist calls Black Americans ‘hate group,’” Web, Feb. 26).
Did swift outrage ensue? Were Dyson’s books banned, his speaking engagements nixed, his scholarly caboose given the spur’s end of a Laredo boot from Vanderbilt University?
In his so-called “racist rant,” Adams answered an inflammatory Rasmussen poll with his hallmark rhetorical model that purposely provokes an initial emotional response followed by earnest dialogue, expanded perspective and finally, invigorated propulsion from backward thinking to imminent and sustained change.
The poll asked Black Americans to say whether they agree with the statement “It’s OK to be White.” Nearly 50% of respondents disagreed or were uncertain.
The misconstrued paradigm Adams used in his monologue triggered an instantaneous reputation befoulment and career demise, recovery from which will require a Herculean effort.
The United States indecently tolerates widespread homelessness, poverty and hunger on our native soil. We vigorously advocate for the suctioning of a chaste human fetus from a woman’s womb. Yet we see enormous outrage over a satirically designed collection of words.
Will we not allow a human being the opportunity to explain their motives before we sacrifice them to the monetized ideologies that have mercilessly infected America?
SCOTT R. HAMMOND
Boston, Massachusetts
