Nick Cannon: 'I Made a Lot of People Mad’ With Anti-Semitic Remarks, Apology
Nick Cannon sat down with Rabbi Abraham Cooper for a lengthy conversation about his anti-Semitic comments and admitted he made a lot of people upset by his remarks — and his apology.
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“I know how you could have taken many of the things that I said as hate and propaganda, but that was never my heart and intentions, I was talking about how amazing Black people were, but it hurt so many people that weren’t a part of that community while I was trying to encourage and uplift my own community,” the 39-year-old host began on the latest episode of his “Cannon Class” podcast.
Cannon made headlines earlier this month after he discussed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on a June episode of his podcast. The Masked Singer producer and Cooper specifically addressed Cannon’s decision to quote Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.
“I could never condone any of that … hateful demagoguery, but it’s hard to not look at the wonderful things from my perception,” Cannon said about Farrakhan. “That’s the only man I know who has ever peacefully brought together a million Black men at once for atonement.”
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Cannon went on to tell Rabbi Cooper that he “made a lot of people mad” in recent weeks.
“I’m asking to be corrected from your community. Give me books. Teach me. I’m an empty vessel — an empty broken vessel. Teach me. Fix me,” Cannon said. “Lead me, that’s why I can say I love you for this opportunity because I know you’re catching it as well. Everybody is throwing hate at me right now. … I made the Jewish community mad. I made my community mad by apologizing. We should be allies because of our common oppression.”
When asked if he feels Cannon is “sincere” with his intention to move forward, Cooper replied, “At this point, yes.”
The rabbi explained: “If what I’m hearing is an interest and a commitment to want to do things together to move forward for the betterment of people, that’ll be the proof of the pudding.”
Cannon initially doubled down regarding his anti-Semitic comments and was subsequently fired from ViacomCBS, which has produced his hit Wild ‘n Out since 2005. One day later, the actor apologized.
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“I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin,” he told Us in a statement on July 15. “They reinforced the worst stereotypes of a proud and magnificent people, and I feel ashamed of the uninformed and naïve place that these words came from.”
While Fox confirmed Cannon will remain the host of The Masked Singer, Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury confirmed on July 17 that his upcoming talk show will no longer premiere in 2020.
“We are standing by Nick in our hope that by fall 2021 he will be able to use his extraordinary talent and platform to entertain, enlighten and unite his audience on the ‘Nick Cannon’ talk show,” the distributor of the nationally syndicated talk show told Us. “Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury condemn anti-Semitism, racism and hate speech. It runs counter to everything we stand for.”
