Elon Musk calls US media and schools ‘racist against whites & Asians’

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, has accused “the media,” and “elite colleges and high schools” of being “racist” towards white and Asian individuals, espousing his views with out offering proof on Sunday.

Musk posted his feedback on Twitter, the place he boasts almost 130 million followers, in response to news that media organizations across the nation determined to chop the caricature “Dilbert” from syndication after its creator, Scott Adams, delivered a racist tirade in a video on his YouTube channel final week.

In the video, Adams mentioned a ballot performed by right-leaning Rasmussen Reports that stated 26% of Black respondents disagreed with the assertion “It’s OK to be white.” The phrase referenced of their ballot has been labeled a “hate slogan” by the Anti-Defamation League. In his video, Adams known as Black individuals who rejected that phrase as a “hate group.”

Adams additionally stated that he personally selected to reside in a group the place few or no Black individuals lived, after which suggested his white viewers to “get the hell away from Black people,” saying he did not “want to have anything to do with them.”

Adams’ video was printed throughout Black History month within the US, which was established in 1976 by President Gerald Ford as a interval throughout which to honor the struggles and contributions of Black Americans.

Among the news shops that dropped “Dilbert” have been The Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Washington Post and USA Today.

Brian Levin, a civil rights lawyer and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University stated, in response to Musk’s tweets:

“Systemic racism requires not only widespread bigotry to be held within a group but also a structural component that allows discrimination and oppression to be imposed on a minority because of an advantage of access and power. A white billionaire from South Africa who recently lost a high profile racial discrimination case may not be in the best position to offer counsel.”

As CNBC beforehand reported, a San Francisco federal courtroom dominated that Tesla should pay a former employee, Owen Diaz, for damages after he endured a hostile work setting and racist abuse on the firm’s manufacturing unit the place he beforehand labored as an elevator operator.

Additionally, the EEOC, a federal company accountable for imposing civil rights legal guidelines towards office discrimination, has issued a trigger discovering towards Tesla in keeping with a monetary submitting from the corporate final 12 months.

Prior to the EEOC discovering, the California Civil Rights Department (previously often known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) sued Tesla after a 3 12 months investigation, alleging widespread racist discrimination at Tesla factories and amenities throughout the state.

The CRD alleged that Tesla has saved Black staff in lower-level roles on the firm even after they have the talents and expertise to be promoted to extra senior roles; assigned Black staff extra demanding, harmful and soiled work of their amenities; and retaliated towards Black staff who complained formally about what they endured, together with racist slurs utilized by managers.

Tesla known as the CRD’s lawsuit “misguided,” and later counter-sued the company.

Musk made his claims about “the media” and a few greater academic establishments and excessive faculties within the US with out presenting any proof.

Specifically, he wrote, “The media is racist.” He then added, “For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.” 

According to Pew Research, newsroom staff are more likely to be white (and male) than U.S. staff general. In movie and TV, in keeping with McKinsey analysis, “Black talent is underrepresented across the industry, particularly off-screen.” Less than 6% of the writers, administrators, and producers of US-produced movies are Black, McKinsey discovered.

According to the latest obtainable US Census Bureau information, about 29% of non-Hispanic white individuals within the US have attained a bachelor’s diploma or greater ranges of schooling, about 18.4% of Black individuals within the US have attained that stage of schooling, and about 51.3% of Asian individuals have attained that stage of schooling.

Despite Asian American academic attainment, Asians are underrepresented in management roles in U.S. tutorial libraries and better schooling, in keeping with analysis by Mihoko Hosoi, printed within the Journal of Library Administration in 2022.

Musk additionally replied to at least one Twitter account that stated unarmed white individuals impacted by police violence solely get a fraction of the media consideration paid to Black individuals injured or killed by police. Musk claimed that the media protection is “Very disproportionate to promote a false narrative.”

According to analysis by Brookings Institute, “Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by police when Blacks are not attacking or do not have a weapon,” and “Black teenagers are 21 times more likely than white teenagers to be killed by police.”

Imran Ahmed, the CEO and founding father of the Center for Countering Digital Hate stated in response to Musk’s tweets, “Elon Musk seeks to portray himself as some weird, bizarro champion of anti-racism whereas in reality when he took over Twitter, he made a series of disturbing decisions to change its rules to welcome racist hate back onto the platform and, as our research has shown, to profit from the controversy and attention hate generates.”

Ahmed additionally known as on remaining advertisers to re-evaluate whether or not they need to spend their budgets on Twitter, given Musk’s beliefs and adjustments he has made to the Twitter platform.

Since main a $44 billion leveraged buyout of Twitter late final 12 months, and appointing himself “Chief Twit” or CEO, Musk has stirred controversy and misplaced cash on the social media business.

Under Musk’s watch, Twitter has restored the accounts of some beforehand banned and divisive figures, together with neo-Nazi web site founder Andrew Anglin. His strikes led to an unprecedented rise in hate speech on the platform, the Center discovered, and drew a direct outcry from civil rights leaders.

Hundreds of Twitter’s high advertisers have since halted or pulled again on advert spending there. One agency estimated that Twitter’s advert income declined as a lot as 70% in December from the earlier 12 months, Reuters reported. Musk acknowledged in a November tweet that the firm suffered a “massive drop in revenue” after advertisers paused spending on the social media platform.

Musk and representatives at Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.