In July of 2020, ViacomCBS dropped actor and show host Nick Cannon’s long standing show Wild and Out following some black supremacist and anti-Semitic comments. Now, after a brief seven month break, Cannon has a new deal with ViacomCBS set to soon begin production of season 16.
On the June 30 episode of his podcast Cannon’s Class, Cannon claimed that “melanated” people gain “compassion” and “soul” from their skin color and whites are a “little less” because they don’t have “the power of the sun.” Canon concluded that a lack of melanin explains the “savage” animalistic behavior of whites.
Although the incident led ViacomCBS to cancel Cannon’s show, the actor experienced minimal other repercussions. Fox Now allowed him to host The Masked Singer last fall and cable network VH1 will begin airing reruns of Wild and Out this week.
VH1 defended their decision to reinstate Cannon’s show in a statement to Variety claiming,
Nick has not only apologized and taken responsibility for his comments, but he has also worked to educate himself and others through engagement with Jewish leaders and on his platforms. Those efforts are of the utmost importance and that’s why we have invited him to rejoin our team.
Debmar-Mercury and Fox Television Stations also gave Cannon a second chance with the expected launch of his syndicated daytime talk show. The show was supposed to launch in the Fall of 2020 but was dropped after Cannon’s bigoted racial commentary. According to Variety, co-presidents of Lionsgate, Debmar-Mercury Ira Bernstein and Mort Marcus, agreed to launch the show when Cannon proved his remorse and attempt to make amends.
Cannon’s soft consequences for maybe some of the most bigoted comments over the last year highlight the hypocrisy of cancel culture. Daily Wire talk show host Matt Walsh pointed out the double standard:
Morgan Wallen said the n-word drunkenly to his friends. Nick Cannon publicly and proudly said that white people are subhuman animalistic savages and inferior to black people. Only one of these men suffered severe professional consequences. Now tell me who has the privilege?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 5, 2021
While the right does not advocate for a culture of unforgiveness and snatching away hard earned reputations, conservatives like Walsh want just social consequences proportionate to actually present offenses. Meanwhile for social justice warriors, no amount of apologies or reparations will be enough unless you already think and do as they want.
