Nick Canon shared a snippet of his new podcast on Instagram. In the clip, he discusses Kyrie Irving’s suspension, comparing it to buck-breaking.
Buck-breaking was what slave owners would do to the slaves that got out of line. They would abuse them in front of the other slaves as a sign of control.
Irving was given a five-game suspension after he linked an antisemitic documentary on Twitter last month. For a week after posting the link to the documentary, he refused to apologize or even say that he was not antisemitic. He only changed his tune after he was suspended on Nov 3. However, it was too late. His deal with Nike had also been suspended the following day.
On Nov 2, Irving announced with the Anti-Defamation League that he was going to donate $500,000 to anti-hate causes, which was one of the conditions for his suspension. He made a statement that he did not believe everything in the documentary. However, he did not say which parts those exceptions were.
With the suspension, the Nets had given Irving some conditions before he would be allowed back on the team. He would have to meet with Jewish leaders, go through counseling, and meet with the team, among other conditions.
Cannon’s podcast take on Irving
In Nick Cannon’s new podcast, 2 Hate or Not 2 Hate, he was joined by the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt. Cannon comes out of the gate saying that he knows that Kyrie Irving is not anti-Semitic. He has made some anti-semitic comments of his own in the past. Greenblatt explained that during the press conference where Irving was officially suspended, Irving did not ever say that he was not anti-semitic when asked point blank. Also, when he was asked to recap the movie, he said “stop dehumanizing me.”
Cannon then compares the harmful tropes found within the video to Irving’s consequences, calling it buck-breaking. He claims that it is dehumanizing. The clip ends, however, before Greenblatt could counter.
Written by Justin Acosta
