CBSViacom has cut ties with television personality Nick Cannon after the host and producer made anti-Semitic remarks on his podcast ‘Cannon's Class' and praised anti-Semitic and homophobic minister Louis Farrakhan.
Cannon was interviewing rapper Professor Griff of Public Enemy, who said, “I'm hated now because I told the truth,” referring to an interview he gave with The Washington Times in 1989, which led to his leaving the group.
What Griff said in that interview was, “The Jews are wicked. And we can prove this.” He also said that Jews were responsible for “the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe.”
Said Cannon to Griff: “You're speaking facts. There's no reason to be scared of anything when you're speaking the truth.”
Said Cannon: It's never hate speech, you can't be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people. When we are the same people who they want to be. That's our birthright. … We are the true Hebrews.”
Cannon also said that people with a lack of melanin have a “lack of compassion:” “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 they can act is evil. They have to rob, steal, rape and [unintelligible] in order to survive.”
The NYT reports: “Mr. Cannon, 39, had worked as an executive producer and chairman of TeenNick, a spinoff of the network Nickelodeon geared toward teenagers. He had also been a host and executive producer of the MTV comedy show ‘Wild 'N Out.'”
Cannon also hosts The Masked Singer on FOX.
Wrote ViacomCBS in a statement: “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. 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.”
Cannon posted a message to Facebook on Tuesday:
“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!”
