Joe Rogan is addressing his use of a racial slur after a viral video showed clips of the controversial podcaster using it repeatedly in past episodes.
Rogan, 54, took to Instagram early Saturday to apologize for “a lot of s--t from the old episodes of the podcast that I wish I hadn’t said, or had said differently. This is my take on the worst of it.”
“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.
While he now agrees “there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word” and said he hasn’t done so in years, Rogan pointed to previous discussions about the slur, in which he “would just say the word” rather than referring to it as “the N-word.”
Though Rogan “thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing,” he said his view as changed and “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 f--ked up,” he continued. “There’s nothing I can do to take that back. I wish I could. But obviously that’s not possible. I do hope that if anything, that this can be a teachable moment.”
Rogan also addressed an 11-year-old clip in which he made a racist joke about a Black neighborhood, which he admitted was unacceptable “even in context.”
“It makes me sick watching that video,” said Rogan. “But hopefully, at least some of you will accept this and understand where I’m coming from. My apologies and much love. My sincere, deepest apologies and much love.”
The compilation video was initially posted by Grammy winner India Arie, who this week called out music streamer Spotify for “problematic” Rogan’s “language around race.”
Arie’s remarks came on the heels of fellow musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music from the platform due to misinformation about COVID-19, which was featured on the podcast hosted by Rogan, the service’s most listened-to broadcaster.
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