Far-right commentator Nick Fuentes is facing renewed criticism after making racist claims about Black Americans’ reading ability during the August 10 episode of his livestreamed show “America First” on Rumble.
During the broadcast, Fuentes mocked a clip of conservative commentator Candace Owens struggling to pronounce “Gibraltar,” then pivoted into a broader claim that Black people are inherently unable to sound out words phonetically. He argued that white readers process letters differently, suggesting Black readers instead perceive whole words while skipping or adding letters.
Fuentes went on to single out Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, one of the platform’s most-watched personalities, claiming he had also observed Cenat mispronouncing words on stream. Fuentes framed the pattern as something he said he had “noticed” repeatedly, describing the act of reading letter-by-letter as something that was uniquely “difficult for them.”
The remarks were flagged and republished by media watchdog group Media Matters for America, which has tracked a string of similar comments from Fuentes in recent months. According to the organization’s archive, Fuentes has previously made disparaging remarks about Chinese people, used a racial slur while discussing his political outlook, and complained about dining near Black patrons, remarking that such experiences explained why he favored segregation.
Fuentes, who leads the “America First” political movement and has built a large following among young right-wing media consumers, has faced years of scrutiny for promoting white nationalist rhetoric, downplaying the Holocaust, and expressing antisemitic and racist views.
Despite bans from mainstream platforms including Twitter/X in earlier years and continued deplatforming efforts, he has maintained a sizable audience through Rumble streams and podcast appearances, and has increasingly courted mainstream conservative figures and events.
Neither Owens nor Cenat had publicly responded to Fuentes’ comments as of Wednesday morning. Cenat, who boasts one of the largest followings on Twitch, has not addressed the remarks on his channel or social media accounts.
The clip surfaced the same week Media Matters also reported on separate comments from Fuentes regarding Dearborn, Michigan’s Muslim population, in which he suggested the Detroit-area city, home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the U.S., should instead reflect a white, Christian demographic makeup tied to its industrial history.
Watchdog groups and civil rights advocates have long raised alarms about the mainstreaming of Fuentes’ rhetoric within segments of conservative media, noting his growing proximity to influential political figures despite his history of explicitly racist and antisemitic statements. Critics argue platforms like Rumble continue to provide him an outlet with limited moderation, allowing his commentary to reach a wide young audience with few consequences.
As of publication, Rumble had not removed the episode or issued any statement regarding the segment.
