Nick Cannon on 'Whiteface': 'I Don't Really Know What That Is'

By ABC News

"America's Got Talent" host Nick Cannon claims he doesn't even know what "whiteface" is, despite the controversy surrounding his posting a photo of himself on Instagram dressed in his new whiteface character.

"Whiteface, if you look it up and Google it, it's a ski slope up in upstate New York," Cannon said today on " Good Morning America." "I don't really know what that is."
Cannon, who released the photo to promote his first album in more than a decade, "White People Party Music," said comparisons of his "character impression" to blackface are inaccurate.
"Blackface is a term that was created in 1869 to describe offensive minstrel shows," Cannon, who's married to singer Mariah Carey, said. "I was doing a character impression. Blackface is about oppression. If you really want to have that conversation, we can have conversation.                                                                                     READ MORE
I like Nick Cannon, but this interview is BULL. He doesn't know what "whiteface" is? Was he born under a rock? His statements I highlighted in yellow above, to me mean: "It's O K for me to do, but NOT for you". "Blackface" wasn't done to be offensive, it was an art form. Remember Al Jolson? I think this was started in Vaudeville, just something different.... Anyone remember "Amos and Andy"? That show was stereotypical of blacks at that time, and they were BLACK actors, no problem with that? Even here in Philadelphia, in the new years "Mummers Parade", blackface was prohibited back in 1964. It's the same old story, ONLY WHITE PEOPLE CAN BE "RACIST"