ViacomCBS announced Tuesday they are officially parting ways with Nick Cannon shortly after the Masked Singer host propagated anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his YouTube show Cannon’s Class. The company subsequently released a statement in which they shared that they will be terminating their relationship with Cannon following a decades-long relationship between the actor and the media conglomerate. In their statement, ViacomCBS said that they are committed to doing better when it comes to anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry.
“While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him,” ViacomCBS said in a statement. “We are committed to doing better in our response to incidents of anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry. ViacomCBS will have further announcements on our efforts to combat hate of all kinds.”
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According to Page Six, this matter first came to light following a conversation that Cannon had with former Public Enemy figure Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin. During their conversation, which saw the two discussing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, Cannon said that Black people are the “true Hebrews.” At one point, he also noted that the “people that don’t’ have [melanin] are a little less” and went on to compare people without melanin in their skin to “savages.” His inflammatory comments quickly sparked backlash, which prompted Cannon to release a statement on Facebook.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart nor malice intentions,” his statement began. “I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric. We are living in a time when it is more important than ever to promote unity and understanding.” Cannon continued to say that the world must continue to educate each other and to “embrace uncomfortable conversations.” He added, “I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy, or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me accountable and correct me in any statement that I’ve made that has been projected as negative. Until then, I hold myself accountable for this moment and take full responsibility because My intentions are only to show that as a beautiful human species, we have way more commonalities than differences, So let’s embrace those as well as each other. We All Family!”
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