Image Source: Rebecca Lai; crop by East718, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan faced renewed criticism in February 2022 after singer India Arie shared a compilation of clips from The Joe Rogan Experience in which Rogan repeatedly used the N-word during podcast conversations spanning many years. Arie, who had announced that she wanted her music removed from Spotify, said her objection to Rogan extended beyond the separate controversy over COVID-19 misinformation to his language about race. The compilation intensified scrutiny of Spotify, which held an exclusive distribution agreement for Rogan’s podcast.
Rogan responded on February 5 with an Instagram video describing the compilation as the most regretful and shameful matter he had addressed publicly. He said the clips had been assembled without their conversational context and explained that he had generally uttered the slur while discussing the word itself, quoting material, or referring to its use by comedians and filmmakers. At the same time, he acknowledged that the distinction did not excuse his conduct, said the word was not his to use, and conceded that he had clearly made a serious mistake.
Rogan also addressed a separate old podcast clip in which he described arriving at a movie theater in a Black neighborhood by comparing the experience to Africa and Planet of the Apes. He denied intending to compare Black people to apes, but acknowledged that the remark sounded racist, called it idiotic, and said he had deleted the episode. He offered sincere and humble apologies and said he hoped the controversy could become a teachable moment. Around the same time, dozens of older Joe Rogan Experience episodes were removed from Spotify; Spotify CEO Daniel Ek later said Rogan had chosen to remove episodes after discussions about racially insensitive language.
Key Apologia Strategies
Mortification, Differentiation, Good Intentions, Corrective Action, Defeasibility
Video
Transcript
Excerpts from Joe Rogan’s February 5, 2022 Instagram apology:
I’m making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly. 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.
It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use. I’m well aware of that now, but for years, I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist cause I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you f*cked up. I clearly have f*cked up.
That’s my intention to express myself in this video to say there’s nothing I can do to take that back. I wish I could. Obviously, that’s not possible. I do hope that if anything, that this can be a teachable moment. I never thought it would be taken out of context and put in a video like that and now that it is, holy sh*t it looks bad.
I did not nor would I ever say Black people are apes but it sure f*cking sounded like that I immediately afterwards 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 onto talk about what a positive experience it was and how much fun it was to go see this move in a Black neighborhood.
It wasn’t a racist story, but it sounded terrible. Like I said, you can have clunky stories about anything but not about race. So 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.
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 realize 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, but all of this is just me talking from the bottom of my heart. It makes me sick watching that video, but hopefully, at least some of you will accept this and understand where I’m coming from. My sincere, deepest apologies and much love.
