OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Podcaster Joe Rogan has now apologized for the newest attack on him, this time from a cobbled together video showing him using the N word at various times during his podcast.
As Rogan explained in his apology, the use of the word in the video lacks the context that he was using the word in.
“There’s been 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,” he said in the caption of an Instagram video.
“There’s a video that’s out. It’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 fu**ing horrible even to me,” he said in the video.
“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 would bring that word up, like if you’d come up in conversation and stand 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. Like that context was part of the clip,” the podcast host said.
He explained some of the context for his comments in the video.
“I was also talking about how there’s not another word like it in the entire English language because it’s a word where only one group of people is allowed to use it. They can use in so many different ways, like if a white person, says that word, it’s racist and toxic. But a Black person can use it, and it can be a punch line, it could be a term of endearment. It could be lyrics to a rap song. It could be a positive affirmation. 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,” the host said.
He then explained a story he told about being in a black neighborhood and a “Planet of the Apes” reference he made.
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“I was telling a story in the podcast about how me and my friend Tommy and his girlfriend, we got really high. We’re in Philadelphia and we went to go see Planet of the Apes, and we didn’t know where we were going. We just got dropped off by a cab and we got dropped off in this all-Black neighborhood. And I was trying to make the story entertaining and I said we got out. And it was like we were in Africa, so like we were in Planet of the Apes,” he said.
“I did not, nor would I ever say that Black people are apes, but it sure fucking sounded like that. And I immediately afterwards said, That’s a racist thing to say. The Planet of the Apes wasn’t even in Africa. I was just saying, there’s a lot of Black people there,” he argued.
He ended the video with an apology for his comments.
“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, 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,” he said.
