Joe Rogan issued a lengthy apology after a video surfaced earlier this week showing him repeatedly using a racial slur on his podcast.
The comedian and UFC color commentator was responding to a video posted by singer India Arie after she announced plans to pull her music for Spotify while showing a clip where Rogan used the ‘N-word’ numerous times on his show over the years.
“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 on Instagram. “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 of me on my podcast and it’s all smushed together and it looks f*cking horrible, even to me.
“Now, I know that to most people there is 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 it in years, but for a long time when I 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.”
Rogan explained that he used the racial slur while discussing comedians such as Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and Paul Mooney as well as instances where the word was used in films by directors like Quentin Tarantino.
Arie blasted Rogan for using the racial slur, announcing she would no longer allow her music on Spotify, the streaming music service that spent over $100 million for exclusive rights to Rogan’s popular podcast.
“He shouldn’t even be uttering the word,” Arie said. “Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.”
Spotify, which just removed 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast, had already been under intense scrutiny for several controversial gusts speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic on his show. Rogan had previously addressed those issues where he was accused of spreading “dangerous misinformation” after Spotify announced plans to label episodes with a warning when dealing with COVID-19.
