Actor Nick Cannon has lashed out at ViacomCBS after he was fired over a “hateful” black supremacist podcast, demanding ownership of the “billion-dollar” entertainment brand he claims was “swindled from” him.
The ‘Masked Singer’ host tore into ViacomCBS in a lengthy Facebook post titled ‘Truth and Reconciliation’, noting that despite being a member of its “family” for over two decades, overseeing its longest-running comedy series, and creating a “billion-dollar brand” in sketch show ‘Wild ’N Out’, he was unceremoniously muscled out of the organization. He wants nothing short of an apology – and full ownership of his brand, a “multitiered empire” that includes everything from talent discovery to restaurants.
Truth and Reconciliation.
I am deeply saddened in a moment so close to reconciliation that the powers that be, misused…
Cannon was fired after reposting an interview with Richard Griffin – aka Professor Griff of Public Enemy – in which the pair discussed Griffin’s expulsion from the group, the allegedly dominant role of Jews in the entertainment industry, and how white people were “a little less” than more “melanated” races. They also spoke at length about how black people were “gods” and discussed the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, notorious for his anti-Semitic remarks.
While the comments about white people didn’t seem to bother ViacomCBS, the remarks about Jewish people certainly did. “ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it was “deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him.” ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone is Jewish – and, ironically, is one of the heads of the six companies that Griffin claimed “control” the media.
In the interview, initially recorded last year and posted to the TV personality’s YouTube channel, Cannon called white people “true savages,” saying they were “closer to animals” than other races and reasoning that their lack of melanin made them “fear” black people and act “evil” and “barbaric.” He also suggested Griffin’s and other rappers’ comments about Jews couldn’t be anti-Semitic because black people were the “true Hebrews.” The pair agreed that there was a group among “Jewish people” who were “afraid of the truth,” but they couldn’t agree on what to call it – Zionists? Illuminati? – before agreeing they themselves were the “real illuminated ones.”
Cannon insisted in his Facebook post that he repeatedly tried to reach out to Redstone to “have a conversation of reconciliation and actually apologize if I said anything that pained or hurt her or her community” but received “Dead Silence!” However, he said, he refused to be forced to “kiss the master’s feet in public for shame and ridicule.” Viacom had “swindled” him out of ownership of ‘Wild ’N Out’ and had been “underpaying talent on their biggest brands” for years.
The actor doubled down on his insistence he was not an anti-Semite, hailing “the Jewish community” for what he called an “outpouring of love and support,” stating he’d been invited to Israel and spoken with “many Rabbis, clergy, professors and coworkers who offer their sincere help.” He apologized for putting his “Jewish Brothers and Sisters in… such a painful position,” an apology he (sort of) extended to white people as well.
Systemic racism is what this world was built on and was the subject which I was attempting to highlight in the recent clips that have been circulating from my podcast. If I have furthered the hate speech, I wholeheartedly apologize.
Cannon made it clear he would not accept the same kind of “sorry, not sorry” apology from ViacomCBS, however, declaring they were “on the wrong side of history” and “truly unwise” to make “such a divisive decision in the midst of protests and civil uprising within our current pandemic.”
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