Cartoonist Scott Adams died today after a long battle with prostate cancer.

That’s the first thing he’ll be remembered for. He cartooned Dilbert for roughly three decades until he said something completely stupid–the second thing for which he’ll be remembered. And he has nobody to blame but himself. A few years ago, he discussed on his podcast the results of a poll in which, according to the New York Times, only 53 percent of Black Americans agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to be white.”

“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people — according to this poll, not according to me, according to the poll — that’s a hate group, and I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” he said on the podcast episode. “And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”

Yikes! There’s really no way for that one to be taken out of context. We have the full context in which he said it. And by the numbers, more than half of the polling sample isn’t racist. There’s no way around the ugliness of what he said.

Now, do I believe that Scott Adams ran around with a white hood, the way former Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, did once upon a time, and attended cross-burnings? No. Then again, I don’t know Adams. I never listened to his podcast, and I never particularly enjoyed Dilbert. I’m sure it was fine in its day, but I wasn’t a cubicle worker then and didn’t appreciate the humor. Same thing with Doonesbury. Give me 1980s Bloom County, The Far Side, and Calvin & Hobbes, please.

You will likely hear in the days ahead people complaining about the media maligning a dead guy who can’t defend himself anymore by bringing up his previous awful comments.

Sadly, Adams, a grown man in his 60s at the time, was in control of his words and spoke them. This wasn’t some off-hand Tweet he posted in his teens. It was in 2023. It’s the way it is.

He said one of the last things he did in life was convert to Christianity. Good for him! I’d like to think that he’ll make it to heaven and chat with Robert Byrd about what and what not to say around Jesus Christ. (Byrd denounced his former beliefs and served for decades in the Senate.)

I hope Adams rests in peace and is remembered more for the good things he did in life and for the joy he brought to pencil-pushing bean counters.