Joe Rogan is once again under fire.
And no, this time it’s not for COVID-19 ‘misinformation’. Instead it’s because Rogan has been caught saying the ‘N-word’ a total of 24 times throughout multiple podcasts.
This video compilation of Rogan using the racist term would be reposted by musician India Arie on her Instagram. It can be found on her latest story highlight, ‘delete spotify’. Arie and her music has since left Spotify.
“Spotify is built on the back of the music streaming,” Arie said. “So they take this money that’s built from streaming, and they pay this guy $100 million, but they pay us .003 percent of a penny? Just take me off. I don’t wanna generate money that pays this. Just take me off. That’s where I’m at.”
“So we know how social media can be: Things can be doctored, people are taken out of context, it’s happened to me many times,” Arie said. “However, I wanna be clear in no uncertain terms where I stand on this is that he shouldn’t even be uttering the word. Don’t even say it under any context.”
Arie Sends A Message
Arie has sounded off on why she has left Spotify. Neil Young and other musicians leaving the streaming platform due to Rogan’s thoughts were also a driving force behind her actions. But ultimately, she had her own reasons.
“I have decided to pull my music and podcast from Spotify,” Arie wrote on Instagram. “Neil Young opened a door that I must walk through. I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews.
For me it’s also his language around race. What I am talking about is respect – who gets it and who doesn’t. Paying musicians a fraction of a penny? And him $100M? This shows the type of company they are and the company that they kee. I’m tired.”
Rogan Responds
Following these comments by Arie, Joe Rogan has since apologized for using the n-word over the years. The UFC commentator and comedian believes the aforementioned video compilation has been taken out of context.
Rogan would also take to Instagram to get his message across.
“I’m making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly,” Rogan said. “There’s a video that’s out, that’s a compilation of me saying the n-word. It’s a video that’s made of clips taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it’s all smushed together, and it looks f*cking horrible, even to me.”
The Context Of It All
“Now I know that to most people there’s no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that. Now, I haven’t said in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the n-word’, I would just say the word.
“I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing. I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist. But whenever you are in a situation where you have to say I’m not racist, you’ve f***** up and I f***** up.”
Rogan Addressed the ‘Planet of Apes’ Story
“We got really high, we were in Philadelphia, and we went to go see ‘Planet of the Apes.’ And we didn’t know where we were going; we’d just got dropped off by a cab, and we got dropped off in this all-Black neighborhood,” Rogan said. “And I was trying to make the story entertaining, and I said, ‘We got out, and it was like we were in Africa. It was like we were in ‘Planet of the Apes.” I did not, nor would I ever say, that Black people are apes, but it sure f*cking sounded like that. I immediately afterward said that’s a racist thing to say; ‘Planet of the Apes’ wasn’t even in Africa. I was just saying there’s a lot of Black people there. But then I went on to talk about what a positive experience it was and how much fun it was to go see this movie in a Black neighborhood. It wasn’t a racist story, but it sounded terrible. And like I said, you can have clunky stories about anything but not about race. I deleted that whole podcast, but obviously somebody made a clip out of it, and taken out of context it looks terrible. But it looks terrible even in context. It’s a f*cking idiotic thing to say. I was just trying to be entertaining. I certainly wasn’t trying to be racist, and I certainly would never want to offend someone for entertainment with something as stupid as racism.”
His ‘Sincere’ Apologies
Rogan unfortunately doesn’t have a time travel machine. However, if he had the chance to change it all, he would. He would continue to apologize the best he could.
“I can’t go back in time and change what I’ve said, I wish I could, obviously that’s not possible, but I do hope that this can be a teachable moment for anybody that doesn’t realise how offensive that word can be coming out of a white person’s mouth, in context or out of context.
“My sincere and humble apologies. I wish there was more that I could say.”
