TV personality Nick Cannon unleashed a racist and anti-Semitic rant in late June on an episode of his podcast “Cannon’s Class,” which he claims is “an academic podcast” designed to host “difficult conversations.”
On the podcast episode in question, Cannon spoke with well-documented anti-Semite Richard Griffin and praised the hateful Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been labeled by both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-Semitic and anti-gay. Nevertheless, the “Masked Singer” host believes Farrakhan is a “positive,” “powerful,” and “uplifting” man who has been “demonized.”
Cannon, during his rant, said white people, who have less melanin in their skin, “have a lack of compassion,” are “closer to animals” and are “the true savages,” because they don’t have “soul.”
“When you have a person who has the lack of pigment, the lack of melanin that they know they will be annihilated, therefore, they know that however they got the power, they have a lack of compassion, melanin comes with compassion,” he said.
Cannon continued:
Melanin comes with soul, that we call it soul, we soul brothers and sisters, that’s the melanin that connects us so the people that don’t have it, are, and I’m going to say this carefully, are a little less — and where the term actually comes from, and I’m going to bring it back to Minister Farrakhan, where they may not have the compassion.
When they were sent to the Mountains of Caucasus, they didn’t have the power of the sun. The sun started to deteriorate them. So, they’re acting out of fear, they’re acting out of low self-esteem, they’re acting out of deficiency, so therefore the only way they can act is evil.
They have to rob, steal, rape, kill, and fight in order to survive. So these people who didn’t have what we have — and when I say, ‘we,’ I speak of the melanated [sic] people — they had to be savages, they had to be barbaric, because they’re in these Nordic mountains, they’re in these rough torrential environments, so they’re acting as animals, so they’re the ones closer to animals. They’re the one that are actually the true savages.
In addition to those comments, his praise of Farrakhan, who is known for hating Jewish people, and his decision to host Griffin, who has said Jewish people are responsible “for the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe,” Cannon questioned the power of Jewish people in the music and entertainment industries. He referenced conspiracy theories suggesting Jewish “bloodlines … control everything, even outside of America.”
Both Cannon and Griffin claimed they can’t be anti-Semitic or racist because “the Semitic people are black people.”
The TV personality also previously hosted Nation of Islam representative Tony Muhammad on his “academic” podcast. At the time, Muhammad told Cannon, “We want caucasians and this government to give us a separate state or territory like you did Israel.”
All of these thoughts and theories are, of course, textbook definitions of disgustingly racist viewpoints. For years, scholars have consistently shot down any sort of pseudo-science that hatefully claims there is any connection between the percentage of melanin in one’s skin to his or her intellectual capacity.
In a statement to Fast Company, Cannon claimed he has “no malice or negative intent.” He continued, “But in a time like 2020, we got to have these conversations. And if there’s an assumption that is perceived as ignorant, let’s debunk it right away.”
“My podcast is specifically an academic podcast to have tough and difficult conversations based off of text,” said Cannon. “And if we read something and something isn’t accurate, let’s do away with it. I can’t wait to sit down with some people that can help educate me and help further this conversation. I want to be corrected.”
The reality TV host said he will be speaking with a handful of rabbis who have reached out to him since he made his anti-Semitic, racist comments.