Joe Rogan Apologizes For Past Use Of The N-Word, Won't Use It Moving Forward
Joe Rogan apologized late Friday after a compilation video of him using the n-word circulated through Twitter and stirred up yet another wave of outrage.
The backlash remained strong all this week. Spotify was put on blast by its artists for hosting "The Joe Rogan Podcast" and paying Rogan $100 million, leading a growing number of them to pull their music from Spotify's catalog in protest. The streaming platform has also started to pull hundreds of episodes of JRE.
On Friday he released an Instagram video apologizing for his use of the term in the not-so-recent past.
"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 on my podcast, and it's all smushed together. And it looks f---ing horrible, even to me," Rogan said, via Fox Business' Melissa Roberto.
While Rogan maintains that the use of the term directed at African Americans has always been in the context of utility over intentionality and without racist sentiment, he stated in the apology video that he was "put off" by how the word sounded and felt a sense of ownership.
"For years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist because I am not racist, but whenever you're in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,' you f---ed up, and I clearly have f---ed up and that's my intention to express myself in this video and 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."
Spotify's lack of defense with their most profitable personality has piled on the pressure for Rogan.
Likely to address the issue in an episode — based on his honest and ongoing dialogue regarding the Spotify licensing deal — listeners can expect the reasoning to quell any anger of "caving in" to the mob with a five-minute rant and two puffs of a backwood.
The Quartering released a video on Rogan's stance on correcting one's language in the face of corporate pressure.
Rogan said, "If you say, 'I'll just censor myself one percent, and if that's what they want, I'm gonna make them happy' then they're just going to keep moving the goalposts. And providing you with more money, and giving you more things. But keep moving it in a certain direction. If you keep giving in to it, they're gonna have a hold on you."
Follow along on Twitter: @AlejandroAveela