Nick Cannon faces intense criticism for giving white nationalist neo-Nazi a platform

Nick Cannon has come under intense fire after hosting prominent white supremacist and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer on his podcast.

Cannon – an actor, comedian, television host and now podcast host – discussed the problematic nature of celebrating 'Columbus Day' on his show "Cannon's Class". Spencer defended the Columbus, a man who launched an intentional genocide of indigenous peoples, as “amazing”.

Cannon retorted:

He came and started f***ing with people. People were enjoying themselves and he brought famine, disease and just raped and pillaged everything.

Spencer then told Cannon that “at some level, you have to own the blood and guts,” pointing to the Haitian Revolution. Cannon defended the Haitian Revolution as people fighting back against being enslaved. Video of the discussion goes on like this for a while.

“Nick Cannon: I’m sorry, I’m not antisemitic I don’t hate Jews, really!” Stop Antisemitism.org tweeted. “Also Nick Cannon: let’s host neo-Nazi Richard Spencer and piss off some more Jews.”

Giving the recognisable face of the alt-right a mainstream platform caused a wave of fury, considering Richard Spencer wants to “establish a white ethno-state in the U.S. and believes that whites should live separately from non-whites and Jews,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Cannon, referring to Spencer as merely ‘controversial’ in his post about the podcast continued to get enormous backlash. Yashar Ali responded saying: “He’s not a reality show star, he’s a white supremacist. My god.” Others called the platforming 'disappointing', 'tiring' and 'antisemetic and racist'.

Many also alluded to the hypocrisy of the interview, as it comes just as Cannon as recently faced criticism for making anti-Semitic remarks, which caused ViacomCBS to cut ties with him and his popular television show "Wild ‘n Out".

Cannon later apologised for his remarks and said in American Jewish Committee webinar that he would attempt to make amends through engaging with members of the Jewish community.