Joe Rogan is a well-renowned man, thanks to his work with the UFC and his podcast. However, with fame, comes a lot of eyes that watch and scrutinize your every single move. Thus, when Rogan made the grave error of uttering the n-word, it made a lot of people angry.
Previously, Joe has made some errors. From spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 virus to hosting other guests spreading misinformation, he has had his bad moments. However, his use of the “N-word” was something that supposedly occurred on numerous occasions.
Despite his apology, Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson remained unconvinced. Speaking to The Times, Samuel voiced his frustration. “He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it. “But he shouldn’t have said it. It’s not the context, dude — it’s that he was comfortable doing it. Say that you’re sorry because you want to keep your money, but you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining.”
Notably, Jackson played the notorious villain Stephen in Quentin Tarantino’s critically acclaimed, “Django Unchained”. Due to the time the film was set in, it required the actors to excessively use the n-word. As such, Tarantino came under a lot of heat for the same. However, on that occasion, Jackson defended Tarantino stating that “He’s just telling a story and the characters talk like that”.
Why did Joe Rogan use the N-word?
In 2022, singer-songwriter India Arie shared a montage of Joe uttering the slur nearly a dozen times. As such this prompted Rogan to take to Instagram, posting an extended apology. At the same time, Rogan also gave an explanation of his usage of the slur.
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“It’s a video that’s made of clips taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast. It’s all smushed together and it looks f—— horrible, even to me.” Additionally, Rogan said that “I know that to most people, there’s 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.”
According to Rogan, he hasn’t uttered the slur in years and when he did, it would come up in conversation. Here, he clarifies that his using the slur wasn’t him using it to make fun of people or use it as a derogatory term. Thus, Rogan apologized to the best of his abilities, making it clear that he was not racist.
UFC fighters supported Rogan after the N-word controversy
Naturally, an occurrence like this was met with a lot of backlash and hatred towards Rogan. As such many people also called for him to be dropped by Spotify. Whilst Spotify CEO Daniel Ek disapproved of Joe’s usage of the slur, he stated that the company would be standing by him.
Interestingly, during this time another media platform offered Rogan $100 million to switch platforms. According to them, Rogan would be allowed to fully express himself, without any need to censor his thoughts. Whilst some expected his viewership to decline, Rogan’s podcast continued to soar at the top of Spotify‘s charts.
Not only that but many reputable names also came to his defense. This included former President Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh, UFC Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, and other UFC fighters. Notably, Adesanya voiced his support for Rogan at the UFC 271 Press Conference. “You can’t control the man. He’s got the biggest platform in the world right now. That’s my n*gga Joe Rogan. F*ck the noise. … Just keep doing you, Joe.”