Several celebrities and public figures have recently been receiving tons of backlash after they donned blackface, but now Nick Cannon is receiving the same treatment for posting a picture of himself in whiteface.
ELLE France’s editor Jeanne Deroo, actress Julianne Hough, and even a New York Assemblyman all issued public apologies after they put on blackface makeup for the sake of costumes.
The immediate backlash and harsh words from the Twitterverse and public sphere was clear: race is not a costume.
Apparently, Nick Cannon didn’t think that concept applied to Blacks painting themselves white.
The African-American TV personality posted a picture to Instagram that showed him covered in makeup that made him appear to be white.
If that wasn’t enough to rub people the wrong way, his caption certainly pushed some people over the edge.
“#WHITEPEOPLEPARTYMUSIC… #GoodCredit #DogKissing #BeerPong #FarmersMarkets #FistPumping #CreameCheeseEating #RacialDraft ‘Bro I got drafted,” the stereotype-laden caption read.
The Twitterverse immediately geared up to attack the “America’s Got Talent” host for what some saw as an unbelievably “offensive” and “ignorant” image.
“This is so f***ing offensive,” one user wrote. “What if Britney Spears made herself black and put a pic up that says ‘it’s official.. IM BLACK.”
Other users called it a clear “double standard” when so many other White stars were heavily criticized for their offensive blackface ensembles.
Unfortunately, it seems as if Cannon wasn’t getting the point his followers were trying to make.
“Damn I didn’t know it was going to be this hard being White!..I’m exhausted with all this ‘privilege’ LOL #WhitePeopleProblems,” he tweeted.
He gave himself a pat on the back in another tweet after he believed he was the source of the term “white face.”
“Hold up… What the f#ck is ‘White Face’??? Did I just create a new term??? Nice!!! LOL,” he tweeted.
One user tried to explain just how racist the use of the hashtags were, not only against white but against Blacks as well.
“#GoodCredit? You’re suggesting Blacks have awful credit and white ppl don’t… u are part of the problem of racism,” one of Cannon’s followers wrote.
Backlash over the image comes shortly after Cannon faced criticism over his album title “White People Party Music.”
During an interview with Us Weekly, Mariah Carey’s husband suggested that white people know how to have a good time so that’s why he gave the album the controversial title.
“You go to a party and white people are having more fun than anybody,” Cannon said. “They know how to have a good time! I could have named the album ‘Purple People Party Music’ and you’d still get the same album, but it was just one of those things. You know, you deal with things like race, and people get uptight, so why not?”
Cannon’s music career has never been a very fruitful one and with so much controversy surrounding an album that Twitter users have already deemed “corny” and “desperate,” it isn’t likely that this album will help turn Cannon’s musical career around.
