Video Nick Cannon And Professor Griff Actually Said - Not Media Adjective Salad
[article excerpts below on Nick's Jewish re-education ]
Thank rabbi Abraham Cooper for Nick Cannon’s fast education in anti-Semitism
“Anyone seeking a Ph.D. in Jew-hatred should watch this ‘interview’ in its entirety,” Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, posted to the center’s official account.
That got Cannon’s attention. The rapper, actor and in-demand television host had said that Black people are “the true Hebrews,” praised Jew-hating Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and trafficked in insidious tropes about Jewish power.
The blow back was swift. Within 24 hours, ViacomCBS, which owns Cannon’s popular “Wild N’Out” program, terminated their relationship. As his reputation and career began to implode, Cannon reached out to Cooper.
That unlikely exchange — between a Black celebrity and an Orthodox Jew and Holocaust expert — has led to Cannon’s public apology and a burgeoning bromance of sorts, in which the two have committed to an ongoing dialogue. Cooper and Cannon have already spoken twice this week — once on the phone and again in a three-hour in-person meeting — and plan to meet again next week, when Cannon will visit with Rabbi Cooper at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. There he will be sure to view The Hitler Letter, a 1919 missive in which Hitler outlined his plans for Jewish extermination.
Griff was ousted from Public Enemy as a result of his anti-Jewish remarks. But through the incident, Cooper formed a relationship with another member of the group –rapper and actor Ice Cube. The two bonded, and Ice Cube went on to emcee the Wiesenthal Center’s annual fundraising gala in 2017, a star-studded event that included Barbra Streisand, Netflix chair Ted Sarandos and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Speaking face-to-face with Cannon led to an intellectual opening. But not because Cooper sugarcoated the situation. “I told Nick from the first conversation, ‘In terms of an apology, you better be ready. Because you’re going to be called a Judas, an Uncle Tom, and people will say you’re in the back pocket of Zionists.’”
Sure enough, almost immediately after Cannon, who could not be reached for comment by press time, reported his meeting with Cooper on Instagram, a social media backlash ensued. His followers accused Cannon of kowtowing to powerful “Jewish interests” and accused the Wiesenthal Center of using its connections in the entertainment industry to silence Farrakhan.
“I focus on tachlis,” said Cooper, using the Yiddish word for the bottom line. “Did Nick reach out because his future was disappearing before his eyes? Or did he reach out because he said to himself, ‘I’m not a bigot, I’m not anti-Semitic’?”
