AFP
New York (AFP) โ US podcaster Joe Rogan apologized Saturday for his past use of racist language including the โN wordโ and said at least one offensive episode of his show has been deleted from streaming giant Spotify.
โMy sincere and humble apologies,โ Rogan said in a nearly-six-minute Instagram post addressing what he called โthe most regretful and shameful thing that Iโve ever had to talk about publicly.โ
Roganโs incendiary language is the latest explosive development to roil Spotify and its flagship star, who have both faced a popular backlash over Covid-19 misinformation on his shows.
The 54-year-old acknowledged he had a particular podcast episode removed which referred to his seeing a movie in a Black neighborhood where he said โit was like we were in โPlanet of the Apesโ.โ
The New York Times reported Saturday that as many as 70 episodes of โThe Joe Rogan Experienceโ show had been quietly taken off Spotify. The streaming service had yet to respond to queries from AFP.
Rogan said his use of the โN wordโ over a 12-year period โ highlighted in a recently uncovered compilation video of him using the term โ looks โhorrible, even to me.โ
He said he believed at the time that as long as he was using the word in context that people would understand his actions.
โI never used it to be racist, because Iโm not racist,โ he said.
But there is โno context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, nevermind publicly on a podcast,โ he added.
โIf a white person says that word itโs racist and toxic, but a Black person can use it and it can be a punchline, it can be a term of endearment, it could be lyrics to a rap song, it could be a positive affirmation.โ
Rogan went on: โItโs a very unusual word, but itโs not my word to use. Iโm well aware of that now.โ
โTeachable momentโ?
Spotifyโs stock fell sharply Thursday amid controversy over Roganโs show, which garners up to 11 million listeners per episode.
Music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell as well as other artists asked that their songs be removed from the platform in protest of Rogan, who has been accused of spouting misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccinations, either directly or through the guests he interviews on his show.
As for his racist language, Rogan said he aimed to do better.
โI canโt go back in time and change what I saidโฆ. but I do hope that this can be a teachable moment for anybody that doesnโt realize how offensive that word can be coming out of a white personโs mouth โ in context or out of context,โ he said.
Rogan went into detailed description of his remarks on the removed episode from 11 years ago in which he spoke about seeing โPlanet of the Apesโ with friends in a neighborhood of Philadelphia.
โI did not, nor would I ever, say that Black people are apes, but it sureโฆ sounded like that,โ he said on his Instagram post which already racked up 3.6 million views.
โAnd I immediately afterward said thatโs a racist thing to say. โPlanet of the Apesโ wasnโt even in Africa, I was just saying there were a lot of Black people thereโ in the neighborhood.
It sounded โterrible,โ he acknowledged. โYou can have clunky stories about anything, but not about race.โ