Musician, comedian and stand-up comic Nick Cannon is on a journey of educating himself on Black-Jewish issues following a July podcast during which he said black people are the “true Hebrews” ABC News reported on Wednesday.
In the podcast, Cannon repeated ideas from Melanin theory, which claims people with dark skin have advantages over non-black people and their respective contributions to world culture and history had been edited out. Cannon claimed non-blacks are “barbaric”, an idea he took back in the ABC interview.
Cannon received tremendous backlash for his comments on Cannon’s Class podcast and his working relations with CBS was cut short. Fox accepted his apology and he resumed his role as the host of The Masked Singer. He donated his first paycheck from that program to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
His original comments seemed to have touched upon some very loaded issues in Jewish-Black relations in the US. Some black-activists claim that modern Jewish people, whom they usually regard as white, are not “really” Jews and that, being a Semitic people from the Middle East, the “real” Jews were black and modern black people are – in fact, the real Hebrews. This would mean modern Jews are claiming a faith and a culture not actually their own.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Center spoke with Cannon on his podcast and shared with him the pain of having “someone on your show say I’m not even a real Jew” [because he is not black]. The other person was the rapper Professor Griff who is a member of the Nation of Islam and support Afrocentrism, which is the view Africa is the source of human civilization.
“I did not know of you before the show,” Rabbi Copper said, “but the world does.” Which is why he and other Jewish leaders engaged Cannon with a series of conversations to expand his understanding on Jewish culture and history.
“I am not seeking forgiveness,” Cannon told ABC, “I am seeking for-growth.”
The comments below the video were less enthusiastic, with many saying he was allegedly forced for saying “the truth” and that “he just miss the money” and that’s why he changed his mind.
Others said that seeing the discussion between the TV talent and the rabbis gives them “a little bit of hope” and that all can “learn and grow.”