Why Nick Cannon 'Needed To See The People' In George Floyd's Minneapolis Community

Nick Cannon "needed to be able to see the people" in George Floyd's Minneapolis community, the Wild 'N Out host writes in a first-person essay on Variety.


"I had to go to Minneapolis," he penned about his trip to Minnesota this past weekend. "I needed to be right there on 38th Street and Chicago where George Floyd’s life was tragically stolen from him. I needed to be able to see the people in that community — how much love they had for their community and their people and why much pain this has caused. We feel the pain go across the world — the anger and the hurt. Those visuals will never be removed from our minds."


He continued: "We’re in the middle of a pandemic and alternatively opposed to coming closer with each other and operating as one humanity, people go within and hope protect the give attention to an old mind-sets of classism and racism. This doesn’t have to exist anymore. Folks are searching for a new regular. I don’t hope to go back to our old usual — clearly that was killing us on several levels."


Cannon, who has previously traveled to Ferguson and Charlottesville, explained that "what we need is a new usual, a new paradigm" and his objective is "to give attention to our humanity and dismantling racist systems that we don’t need that perpetuate crimes of inequality and oppress communities of color all over our country."


"We have to dismantle all of these systems that this nation was add onto he stated.


Although Cannon is "finding signs of hope" in the mayor of Minneapolis (Jacob Frey) and St. Paul (Melvin Carter).


"To visualize them respond immediately with care and compassion was the correct thing to do," Cannon mentioned. "I seen a lot of pain and disappointment in their law enforcement. Being at 38th and Chicago and seeing people crying at the memorial — it was disappointment more than anything. They didn’t think something like this would happen in Minneapolis. However it did. This is what America is. If it may can take place in Minneapolis, it may happen in Georgia and also it might can occur in Los Angeles also it may can occur in New York."


Read Cannon's entire Variety story here -- and visualize a roundup of pictures and videos from Minneapolis (shared on his Instagram account) below.