After its decades-long relationship with Nick Cannon, ViacomCBS severed ties with the TV personality after he went on a racist, anti-Semitic rant on his podcast “Cannon’s Class.”
“ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism,” the company stated Tuesday. “We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast ‘Cannon’s Class’ on YouTube, which promoted hate speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”
The company said it is “deeply troubled” by Cannon’s comments and is ending its partnership with the well-known personality, who had been with the company for dozens of years. “We are committed to doing better,” ViacomCBS added.
During a conversation with documented anti-Semite Richard Griffin, Cannon described white people, who have less melanin in their skin, as having “a lack of compassion,” “a little less,” “closer to animals,” and “the true savages.” You can read more on that here.
Cannon also questioned the power Jewish people have in the entertainment and music industries. He referenced conspiracy theories suggesting Jewish “bloodlines … control everything, even outside of America.”
“When we speak of, because this is where it truly is, and we talk about the six corporations, when we go as deep as the Rothschilds, centralized banking, the 13 families, bloodlines that control everything, even outside of America, when we talk about the people who, if we were truly the children of Israel, and we’re defining who the Jewish people are, because I feel like if we actually can understand that construct, then we can see that there really is no hate involved,” Cannon said.
He went on to say: “When we talk about the lies, the deceit, how the fake dollar controls all of this, then maybe we can get to the reason why they wanted to silence you and why they wanted to silence Minister Farrakhan and they want to throw that, we are having hate speech when it’s never hate speech.”
Cannon has maintained he can’t be racist or anti-Semitic because “the Semitic people are black people.”
Meanwhile, he has praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, denounced by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League as a vile anti-Semite, as a “positive,” “powerful,” and “uplifting” man who has been wrongly “demonized.”
And in the time since his abrupt dismissal for his abhorrent comments, Cannon has spent time retweeting posts in his defense, many saying they will “boycott” ViacomCBS and others claiming the entertainer “has never been racist” or “said anything close to racist.”
Cannon posted a lengthy statement of his own to Facebook on Wednesday. In it, he argued his firing is proof of “systemic racism” and a “racist and oppressive infrastructure” at ViacomCBS.
The 39-year-old celebrity said he will “pray for” the leadership at ViacomCBS and apologized if his own rhetoric “furthered the hate speech.” Cannon also announced he will be soon traveling to Israel — “a lifelong dream” — where he will “receive teachings, lessons, and truth about the Jewish history,” which he said will be useful in his pursuit of a doctorate in theology.