Nick Cannon shouldn’t use his platform to spread misinformation
If Cannon wants to bash the Democratic Party, which has evolved since its pro-slavery origins to one that centers civil rights and diversity, he has a moral obligation to tell the rest of the story.
When I first heard Nick Cannon’s viral comments about President Donald Trump, the Democratic Party, and the Ku Klux Klan, my first inclination was to ignore his foolishness.
But then I thought about his huge platform — the TV and radio host has nearly seven million followers on Instagram and almost three million on TikTok. He has tremendous influence during an age when the truth is under attack by an administration that is attempting to stifle the freedom of the press while also whitewashing history.
With the crucial midterm elections looming, the times we’re living in are too politically fraught to allow someone of Cannon’s stature to spout misleading Republican talking points without pushback.
Americans need to understand the considerable differences between the two major political parties and what each stands for today — not where they stood back in the 1860s.
The controversy began last week when an episode of Cannon’s web talk show Big Drive aired that included a conversation he had with South Philly native Amber Rose, an avowed Trump supporter. She made a comment about the Democratic Party not caring about Black people and said the Republicans did.
Cannon replied: “I agree with you 100%. People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK. People don’t know that the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves.”
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But wait, there’s more.
Cannon, who has fathered 12 children with six different women, continued, telling Rose: “I mean, both of you and I have some conservative views. You’re just a little bit more outspoken than I am.”
“The last thing we need are celebrities — especially ones who look like us — saying really ridiculous things that are white supremacist talking points.”
That comment about Cannon espousing conservative views is hysterical, but then again, he is a comedian.
Let me stick to what’s in the public interest, and it’s this: If Cannon wants to bash the Democratic Party — which has evolved dramatically since its pro-slavery origins to one that centers civil rights and diversity — then he has a moral obligation to tell the rest of the story, which is that the parties have basically switched racial ideologies.
“Is Nick Cannon uninformed, or is he just trying to get attention on social media?” Clay Cane, author of The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump, asked me during an interview. “What’s frustrating about it is that it spreads misinformation. It spreads dangerous lies about our history.”
Cane, a West Philly native, pointed to the Trump administration‘s recent attempt to remove the slavery exhibit from the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park, and said: “It is due to misinformation like the ridiculous thing that Nick Cannon said. I don’t know if it’s intentional. I don’t know if he’s uninformed.
“But either way, it makes it dangerous when there is a war on truth right now. The last thing we need are celebrities — especially ones who look like us — saying really ridiculous things that are white supremacist talking points,” added Cane, who is also the author of the 2026 novel Burn Down Master’s House. “Nick Cannon has the privilege, the money, and the access to figure out what he’s talking about.”
Celebrities get to espouse their political views no matter how repugnant. However, they do us all a disservice when they use their platforms to spread misleading information, intentionally or otherwise.
Rozonda “Chili” Thomas, from the singing group TLC, found herself in similar hot water recently after word that she had reposted a baseless conspiracy theory — that’s especially popular among Republicans — about former first lady Michelle Obama.
Thomas has since posted a video claiming she shared the post in error. That might not be enough to appease her fan base, but that’s on her. Just know that I will be boycotting TLC’s long-awaited, upcoming tour — and I’d been looking forward to it.
As for Cannon’s comment about the Democratic Party, he’s not wrong, but he sure isn’t totally right, either. The Republicans did, indeed, initially hold the moral high ground when it came to promoting equality for Black people. When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, a number of the abolitionists were in the Republican Party’s ranks. After Reconstruction, Southern Democrats were, indeed, responsible for passing Jim Crow laws that segregated and violently disenfranchised Black Americans.
But midway through the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement helped reverse the political parties’ alignment. Former Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was signed into law by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Republicans went on to adopt the infamous “Southern Strategy” of signaling support for conservative values to win over white voters opposed to civil rights — too often violently so.
So Cannon only told half the story.
“The Democrats were once the party of the KKK. Absolutely true,” Kevin M. Kruse, a history professor at Princeton University, told me. “Republicans were once the party of Lincoln. Absolutely true.”
But then he added, “I would encourage Nick Cannon and other people who stopped reading American history in 1860 to stay tuned for the rest of the book — because other stuff happens.”
Indeed, it does, Nick Cannon. And if you’d kept reading the story, you’d learn that Confederate soldiers never did get a chance to parade their flag through the U.S. Capitol during the Civil War. But it sure did make it inside the “People’s House” on Jan. 6, 2021 — carried by supporters of the same GOP you’re so quick to praise now.
As you said on your radio show, people just don’t know. And if you’re going to be handing out history lessons, be sure to tell the other half of the story.