Podcast host Nick Cannon was fired by ViacomCBS for anti-Semitic remarks, including claims that Jews are the “true savages.”
“ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism,” the company said in a statement.
ViacomCBS said company executives spoke with Cannon about the podcast episode, “which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”
“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,” it said.
The podcast in question featured Cannon and rapper Professor Griff, who has in the past called Jews “wicked” and responsible for “the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe.'’
Griff told Cannon he was not anti-Semitic as they discussed ideas about different races.
Cannon, 39, claimed that people who lack melanin are “a little less.”
“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,” he said.
Melanin is a skin pigment; people with lighter skin have less of it than those with darker skin.
“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 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 ones that are actually the true savages,” Cannon added.
Making clear about whom he was speaking, the podcast host then said: “So I say all that to say the context when we speak of ‘Jewish people,’ white people, Europeans, the Illuminati—they were doing that as survival tactics to stay on this planet.”
Cannon took to social media earlier in the week to defend himself, saying, “Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart nor malice intentions.”
“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,” he added.
“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.”
