Joe Rogan posted an Instagram video on Saturday addressing the ongoing controversy with his show, including his anti-vaccination rhetoric and his past use of the n-word. The five-minute clip surfaced on Friday night and soon spread around throughout Saturday morning.
The decision to speak out comes after musician India Arie posted a compilation video to social media where Rogan said the n-word around two dozen times. In Rogan’s response, he makes it clear that what is featured is “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”
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“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,” Rogan says. “But for a long time… 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. It’s not my word to use… I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f-d up, and I clearly have f-d up.”
Arie is one of many musicians who have pulled their music from Spotify in the wake of controversy surrounding Rogan. She is the first to pull support due to the comedian’s use of the n-word, while the video going viral also led to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson changing his stance as well. “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.”
This is the latest chapter in a current string of controversy for Rogan and Spotify. Nearly 300 doctors signed an open letter to Spotify addressing the $100 million deal the streamer paid Rogan and the amount of misinformation he is helping spread about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell were the next to act, pulling their music from the platform in protest. Spotify has made it clear they are standing by Rogan and haven’t been hit too hard by the backlash yet. “We don’t reflect any churn from the recent JRE thing,” CEO Daniel Ek said during a recent earnings call. “In general, what I would say is it’s too early to know what the impact may be. And usually, when we’ve had controversies in the past, those are measured in months and not days. But I feel good about where we are in relation to that.
