Cannon apologizes to Jewish community

Nick Cannon apologized to the Jewish community late Wednesday for his “hurtful and divisive” words.

Nick Cannon apologized to the Jewish community late Wednesday for his “hurtful and divisive” words, a day after ViacomCBS severed ties with him for the remarks made on a podcast.

The Anti-Defamation league and some Jewish leaders had condemned what they called anti-Semitic theories expressed by Cannon and demanded the apology.

“First and foremost I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin,” Cannon said on his Twitter account. “They reinforced the worst stereotypes of a proud and magnificent people and I feel ashamed of the uninformed and naïve place that these words came from. The video of this interview has since been removed.”

ViacomCBS cut ties with the TV host and producer Tuesday in response to his comments on a podcast where he discussed racial bias.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s associate dean, told The Associated Press that Cannon reached out to him Wednesday and during a 30-minute telephone conversation he apologized to the Jewish community and Cooper asked him to post it on social media.

“He started out the right way, he said the right things,” Cooper said. “Half an hour is a long time, and we’ll probably meet tomorrow in the LA area. He understood that the words and references that he thought were based on fact, turned out to be hateful propaganda and stereotypical rhetoric.”

The TV host and producer wrote earlier a lengthy Facebook post defending himself and criticizing his firing for what the company deemed “bigotry” and “antiSemitism,”

prominent members of the U.S. Jewish community said the post fell well short and demanded an apology.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m not a racist, I’m not a bigot,’” Cooper had told the AP earlier. “The statements he made are hurtful, and they’re false.”

Cooper said Cannon should read and heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who “dedicated his life for civil rights for all and a color-blind America.” Cooper also had advised him to seek out the guidance of basketball Hall of Famer-turnedwriter Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has condemned several sports and entertainment celebrities for anti-Semitic posts.

Nick Cannon