Some high profile African Americans have spoken up in defense of entertainer Nick Cannon following his firing by ViacomCBS for making vile racist and antisemitic comments.
Cannon, an actor and TV host was joined recently by controversial hip hop figure Professor Griff on a recent episode of the 'Cannon's Class' podcast.
Their meandering unintelligent discussion lead to Cannon claiming that whites lack sufficient melanin and are therefore “a little less" human. He claimed that those without dark skin have a “deficiency” that historically forced them to act out of fear and commit acts of violence to survive.
“They had to be savages,” Cannon said, referring to “Jewish people, white people, Europeans,” among others.
Cannon's guest Professor Griff was briefly kicked out of the rap group Public Enemy after he made anti-Semitic comments. “The Jews are wicked. And we can prove this,” Griff told the New York Times at the time.
In his interview with Cannon, he appeared to stand by the remarks. “I’m hated now because I told the truth,” he said.
The 'Cannon's Class' podcast was apparently recorded last year, but was published over two weeks ago.
ViacomCBS fired Cannon after hearing the podcast and the remarks he made towards Jews. The company owns MTV, where Cannon's comedy sketch series "Wild 'N Out" has been popular since its debut in 2005 and recently expanded to its sister network, VH1. ViacomCBS is also the parent company of Nickelodeon, on which Cannon appeared as an actor starting in the 1990s and where he later served as an executive.
As the controversy swirl up Monday on social media, Cannon took to Facebook to address it. “I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric ... 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," he wrote.
Discussing the controversy Wednesday, Charlamagne Tha God, the host of radio talk show 'The Breakfast Club' supported Cannon’s criticism of white people, saying that white people have a “history of mass racial violence in this country.”
He however, said that Cannon’s firing proved that Jews do have “the power.”
“That’s what you can do when you have the power. … Listen, Nick is my guy. I hate it had to be him, but that’s what you can do when you have the power. And if there’s one thing Jewish people have showed us, it’s they have the power.”
Charlamagne tha God (real name Lenard Larry McKelvey) added, “I can’t wait until the day black people are able to fire people for saying thing about us that we deem racist. We can barely get cops fired for actually killing us!”
Rapper and music icon Diddy in a tweet Wednesday, said that black people need to stand with Cannon and invited him to join the “truly black-owned” Revolt TV. "@NickCannon come home to @REVOLTTV truly BLACK OWNED!!! We got your back and love you and what you have done for the culture. We are for our people first!!! For us! By US! Let's go!!!," he tweeted.
Former professional basketball player Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. in a now deleted tweet said, "@NickCannon we are with you. Keep leading!"
He later "clarified" in another tweet. "I want to clarify my now deleted tweet. I was not supporting or condoning what Nick Cannon specifically said, but I had expressed my support of him owning the content and brand he helped create."
Nick Cannon had in a lengthy post on Facebook early Wednesday morning demanded "full ownership of my billion dollar Wild 'N Out brand that I created" and asked for an end to "the hate and back door bullying" and an apology from ViacomCBS.