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I recently reported on Nick Cannon donning Whiteface to get us to pay attention to his new album, “White People Party Music.” That article was the reason “Good Morning America” reached out, asking me to share my opinion on Nick Cannon and his racial publicity stunt for the show. Of course I jumped at the chance.

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I usually roll my eyes when reality show stars back peddle after their season is over, blaming editing for the crazy things they’ve said. Now I get it. While I did say exactly what the five second clip displayed; I said a lot of other tidbits like…

I won’t be quick to call Nick Cannon a racist for his actions, but I also won’t let him think that Whiteface is fine just because he’s not the first one to do it. Blackface has a painful history of suppression and ridicule against Blacks. This is why Blackface hurts. Whiteface has no real history, other than Black comedians using it to create White characters on screen. While the painful history is void here, the problem is, it has the same effect. It’s offensive. Who cares if Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and more have used Whiteface as comedic relief. That doesn’t make it right.

Cannon’s not backing down from his bold promotion, in fact, he’s been RT’ing all of the support since he introduced us to the White man he’s playing, “Connor Smallnut.”

Cannon then tried to defend himself by saying we didn’t get mad at this:

Here’s why we didn’t get “mad” at this. In this parody video, shot a few years ago, Nick can be seen with fellow comedian, Affion Crockett in Blackface, shucking and jiving their way through Black stereotypes.

In the beginning of the video, Nas recited a disclaimer:

“There is a period of great distress in the rap universe. There was a time when Hip-Hop was a form of empowerment. Now the corporate world is quickly diluting our culture for nothing more than profit. With the ever mounting forces of ridiculous dances, ignorant behavior and general buffoonery, it’s only a matter of time before Hip-Hop’s permanent annihilation. Thisis what the future holds if it don’t stop…”

You are making cultural commentary. There’s a purpose in this spoof. There’s no real purpose to the Whiteface Cannon painted on–well I guess there is. He’s got an album coming out on April 1. What a brilliant marketing ploy. Bad press is still press.

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