Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at his company’s factory in Fremont, California.
Noah Berger | Reuters
Elon Musk, president of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter accused the “media” and “elite colleges and high schools” of being “racist” against whites and Asians by advocating his views without providing evidence on Sunday.
Musk posted his comments on Twitter, where he boasts nearly 130 million followers, in response to news that media organizations across the country had decided to chop the “Dilbert” comic from distribution after its creator, Scott Adams, delivered a racist tirade in video on his YouTube channel last week.
Within the video, Adams discussed a poll conducted by the right-wing Rasmussen Reports showing that 26% of black respondents disagreed with the statement “It’s okay to be white.” The phrase referenced of their survey has been called a “hate slogan.” Anti-Defamation League. In his film, Adams called black individuals who rejected the phrase a “hate group.”
Adams also said that he personally selected to live in a community where there have been few or no black people, and then advised his white viewers to “get away from black people”, saying that he “wanted nothing to do with them.”
Adams’ video was released during Black History Month in the USA, which was established in 1976 by President Gerald Ford as a time to honor the struggles and contributions of Black Americans.
Among the many news outlets that launched “Dilbert” were The Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Washington Post, and USA Today.
Musk’s record
Brian Levin, a civil rights lawyer and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, said in response to Musk’s tweets:
“Systemic racism requires not only the upkeep of widespread bigotry inside a bunch, but in addition a structural element that permits discrimination and oppression of minorities on account of access and power benefits. A white South African billionaire who recently lost a high-profile racial discrimination case might not be in the very best position to advise.”
As previously reported by CNBC, a federal court in San Francisco has ruled that Tesla must pay former worker Owen Diaz damages after he endured a hostile work environment and racist abuse at the corporate’s factory where he previously worked as an elevator operator.
As well as, the EEOC, the federal agency chargeable for enforcing civil rights against discrimination within the workplace, issued a ruling against Tesla under Art. financial report from the corporate last 12 months.
Prior to the establishment of the EEOC, the California Department of Civil Rights (formerly referred to as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) sued Tesla after a three-year investigation, alleging widespread racial discrimination at Tesla’s factories and facilities across the state.
The CRD claimed that Tesla kept black employees in lower positions throughout the company, even in the event that they had the talents and experience needed to advance to higher positions; they attributed black employees to more demanding, dangerous and dirty work at their facilities; and retaliated against black employees who formally complained about what they endured, including racial slurs utilized by managers.
Tesla called the CRD lawsuit “deceived” and later filed a lawsuit against the agency.
Racism Data
Musk made his claims concerning the “media” and some higher education institutions and high schools within the US without providing any evidence.
Specifically, he wrote, “The media is racist.” He then added: “For a *very* very long time, the US media was racist against non-whites, now it’s racist against whites and Asians. The identical thing happened with America’s elite colleges and high schools. Possibly they’ll try to not be racist.”
Based on a Pew study, editorial staff they’re rather more white (and male) than US employees typically. Based on McKinsey’s research in film and television, “Black talent is under-represented across the industry, especially off-screen.” McKinsey found that lower than 6% of writers, directors and producers of movies made within the US are black.
Based on the newest available U.S. Census Bureau dataabout 29% of non-Hispanic white people in the USA have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, about 18.4% of black people in the USA have achieved this level of education, and about 51.3% of Asians have achieved this level of education.
Despite being of Asian descent in America, Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions in US academic libraries and higher education, based on research by Mihoko Hosoi, published within the Journal of Library Administration in 2022.
Musk also responded to 1 Twitter account that said that unarmed white people affected by police violence receive only a fraction of the media attention given to black people injured or killed by police. Musk stated that media coverage is “very disproportionate to promoting a false narrative.”
Based on research by Brookings Institute, “Black persons are 3.5 times more more likely to be killed by the police than white people when Black people usually are not attacking or armed” and “Black teenagers are 21 times more more likely to be killed by the police than white people.”
Hate speech on Twitter
Imran Ahmed, CEO and founding father of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in response to Musk’s tweets: “Elon Musk tries to portray himself as a weird, quirky anti-racism advocate when actually, when he took over Twitter, he made a series of disturbing decisions change their policies to welcome racist hate back onto the platform and, as our research has shown, profit from the controversy and attention that hate generates.”
Ahmed also urged other advertisers to reassess whether or not they need to spend their budgets on Twitter, given Musk’s beliefs and the changes he has made to the Twitter platform.
Ever since he led a $44 billion leveraged buyout of Twitter late last 12 months and named himself “Chief Twit,” or CEO, Musk has stirred up controversy and lost money within the social media business.
Under Musk’s watchful eye, Twitter has reinstated the accounts of some previously banned and divisive figures, including the founding father of the neo-Nazi site Andrew Anglin. His moves led to an unprecedented phenomenon increase in hate speech on the platform, the Center found and sparked immediate outrage from civil rights leaders.
Since then, a whole lot of top Twitter advertisers have paused or withdrawn ad spending. One company estimated that Twitter ad revenue fell by as much as 70% in December in comparison with the previous 12 months, reported Reuters. Musk admitted in a November tweet that the corporate experienced a “huge drop in revenue” after advertisers halted spending on the social media platform.
Musk and representatives from Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.