Watch Nick Cannon's Bizarre Whiteface Response

Well, I can’t say I’m completely surprised by Nick Cannon’s blasé response to the backlash about his Connor Smallnut character. In case you missed it, Cannon covered himself in whiteface last week as a promotional stunt for his upcoming White People Party Music album. Cannon, with a fresh Sisqo-circa-1999 ‘do, appeared on, wait for it, Good Morning America with perhaps the whitest morning news correspondent possible. In the interview, Nick Cannon dismissed the topic of whiteface, talked around, and joked about people’s feelings toward his Instagram sensationalism.

All in all, I’m just confused. Again, he’s either trying to pull another stunt with his reaction...or he’s just not a good enough artist to actually be making a statement here. He made an album called White People Party Music and then created a white persona for himself, and then goes on national television to tell people to chill out because race doesn’t have to be that big of an issue. BUHHHHH. He kinda just undermined himself completely here.

There are times when creating humor around and about race can start some important discourses and other times when it’s just outright offensive. Cannon does neither and just coasts in the middle, as he proclaimed himself that what he's doing is, "Not a new conversation."There is, however, one point that Cannon made when commenting on the difference between whiteface (which he claims isn’t a thing) and blackface, which I can actually agree with, “I was doing a character impression; Blackface is about oppression.” Okay, so clearly Cannon gets that, you know, RACE IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE, but he’s just not owning-up to the statement he only kind of attempts to make.

All in all, the stunt is downright annoying. If he wanted to say something about race, youth culture, and the music industry through a comedy album, I’d be all for it. But it appears Nick Cannon only sort of feels like doing that because WHATEVER YOU KNOW?

Ugh. Watch the baffling clip below

Image: NickCannon/Instagram