Nick Cannon has come under fire for comments he made during the most recent episode of his YouTube show, Cannon’s Class. The Masked Singer host took to Facebook to speak out after he received backlash for what people are calling anti-Semitic comments, claiming that he has “no hate” in his heart.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart nor malice intentions. I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric. We are living in a time when it is more important than ever to promote unity and understanding,” he wrote on his page. “The Black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression persecution and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles.”
Cannon continued by adding that he is an “advocate for people’s voices to be heard openly, fairly and candidly.”
“In today’s conversation about anti-racism and social justice, I think we all — including myself — must continue educating one another and embrace uncomfortable conversations — it’s the only way we ALL get better,” he noted, writing that he encourages and welcomes a healthy dialogue and invites experts to hold him accountable “and correct me in any statement that I’ve made that has been projected as negative.”
“Until then, I hold myself accountable for this moment and take full responsibility because My intentions are only to show that as a beautiful human species we have way more commonalities than differences, So let’s embrace those as well as each other. We All Family!??,” he concluded.
On his YouTube talk show, Cannon stated that white people are “savages” and “a little less” than darker-skinned people.
“The people that don’t have [melanin] are a little less,” Cannon said, claiming, “when they were sent to the mountains of Caucasus … The sun then started to deteriorate them, so then they’re acting out of fear, they’re acting out of low self-esteem, they’re acting out of a deficiency.”
“So, therefore, the only way that they can act is evil. They have to rob, steal, rape, kill in order to survive,” he continued. “So then, these people that didn’t have what we have — and when I say we, I speak of the melanated people — they had to be savages … They’re acting as animals so they’re the ones that are actually closer to animals. They’re the ones that are actually the true savages.”
People on social media, including British rapper Zuby, began calling him a “Black supremacist.”
Despite Cannon being named chairman of TeenNick, the backlash was enough for ViacomCBS, Nickelodeon’s parent company, to decide to cut ties with him.
“ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism. We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast Cannon’s Class on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” a ViacomCBS spokesperson tells 360aproko in a statement. “While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him.”
“We are committed to doing better in our response to incidents of anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry. ViacomCBS will have further announcements on our efforts to combat hate of all kinds.”
