Nick Cannon is over and out at VH-1 and MTV’s “Wild and Out.” He’s also out at Nickelodeon. They’re all parts of Viacom, where Cannon has been ousted for making anti-Semitic remarks, standing by them, and backing Louis Farrakhan on his YouTube podcast.
Here’s what Viacom says, first of all: “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.”
Cannon, well known for being Mariah Carey’s ex husband, has potentially destroyed his career in one fell swoop. He also hosts Fox’s “Masked Singer,” a huge hit. I can’t imagine that will go one much longer.
“Cannon’s Class” on YouTube is an eye opener. In the interview cited, Cannon interviewed former Public Enemy member Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin — who himself was fired from the group for making anti-Semitic comments in a 1989 interview. He repeatedly referenced fringe conspiracy theories about Jewish people. During the conversation, Cannon said Black people are the “true Hebrews” and praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakan praising is not uncommon to “Cannon’s Class.” Cannon claims in the interview that “every time I’ve heard him speak, it’s positive, it’s powerful, it’s uplifting,” and yet Farrakhan has been “demonized.”
Also recently featured in “Cannon’s Class” is a full length interview with someone named Minister Abdul Malik Sayyid Muhammad. Every conversation circles around Jews, and how much the Nation of Islam doesn’t “hate” Jews but resents them. This is just hogwash. It’s hurtful, it’s a lie, and it’s meant to cause schisms between the black and Jewish communities for no reason other than hate.
There’s some disconnect here. The passive followers of Farrakhan either don’t understand the anti-Semitic references or they’re immune to them. Or they don’t take care. Ironically, Nick Cannon has had nothing but success without any major obstacles. I think now he’ll find them.
I’m sorry, I liked Nick. I met him at his engagement party with Mariah at LA Reid’s Hamptons home, we always had a nice relationship. But this is unacceptable because he refuses to apologize. This is what he wrote on Facebook as an explanation. It’s no good.
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.
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.
When you look at The Media, and other sectors in our nation’s history, African Americans and The people of the Jewish community have partnered to create some of the best, most revolutionary work we know today.
I am 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. I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy, or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me 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!
