Yahoo Finance Dwyane Wade tweets, deletes support for Nick Cannon after actor was fired for anti-Semitic remarks
A day after Nick Cannon lost his job for peddling anti-Semitism, Dwyane Wade tweeted his support for the entertainer.
He later wrote that he wasn’t supporting Cannon’s comments.
ViacomCBS cut ties with Cannon on Tuesday, citing “hateful speech” and “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” he espoused on a podcast.
On Wednesday, Wade tweeted at Cannon “We are with you keep leading!”
The retired NBA star then deleted the tweet after around two hours and more than 2,000 comments before posting another tweet addressing his stance.
I want to clarify my now deleted tweet. I was not supporting or condoning what Nick Cannon specifically said, but I had expressed my support of him owning the content and brand he helped create 🙏🏾
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) July 15, 2020
I was too quick to respond without being fully informed about his hurtful anti-Semitic remarks. As you all know I have ZERO tolerance for any hate speech!
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) July 15, 2020
What Nick Cannon said
Cannon was fired in part for anti-Semitic remarks citing the teachings of Minister Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as “deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBT.”
He made the statements on a podcast appearance with rapper and Public Enemy founding member Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin.
“When you'd have a person that has the lack of pigment, the lack of melanin, that they know that they will be annihilated,” Cannon said. “So therefore, however they got the power, they have the lack of compassion that — melanin comes with compassion.
“So the people that don't have it are a little — and I'm going to say this carefully — are a little less. And where the term actually comes from, because I'm bringing it all the way back around to Minister Farrakhan.”
Cannon then referred to non-“melanated” people as “savages” and clarified that he was speaking about Jewish people, white people, Europeans, the Illuminati.”
“So then these people who didn’t have what we had — and when I say we, I speak of the melanated people — they had to be savages,” Cannon continued. “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 that are actually closer to animals. They’re the ones that are actually the true savages.
“So I say all that to say the context. And when we speak of whether it’s Jewish people, white people, Europeans, the Illuminati, they were doing that as survival tactics to stay on this planet. We never had to do that.”
Cannon’s rhetoric sounds familiar
Cannon then referred to Black people as “true Hebrews,” echoing the anti-Semitic trope that got Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson in trouble. He also criticized the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family, and claimed “you can't be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people.”
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson also made an anti-Semitic statement about the Rothschilds while citing Farrakhan in defense of his support of DeSean Jackson and previous anti-Semitic statements he made.
Cannon demands control of brand
Cannon was fired from his job hosting “Wild ‘n Out,” a comedy improv series on ViacomCBS’ VH1. On Wednesday, Cannon demanded control of the show in a Facebook post.
“I demand full ownership of my billion dollar ‘Wild ‘N Out’ brand that I created, and they will continue to misuse and destroy without my leadership!” Cannon wrote.
That statement appears to be what Wade claims to have been supporting in his second tweet on Wednesday.
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