By Rebecca Johnson // Racism // EEW Magazine Online

In a world where atrocious apologies are issued daily by influencers, entertainers, and shock jocks, Joe Rogan’s expletive-filled sorry video just took the cake and came back and licked the plate.

Spotify’s star podcaster, who inked a $100 million deal with the digital streaming service in 2020, launched his unofficial virtual repentance tour Saturday for using the N-word multiple times and referring to a Black neighborhood as “Planet of the Apes.”

Unfortunately, Rogan’s first tour stop—Instagram—proved disastrous.

While fittingly adorned in a Black shirt and looking somber at the funeral of his credibility, the host of the “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Spotify’s most popular podcast, addressed “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

In an apology full of deflections, the 54-year-old noted that there are “12 years of conversations” available to the public and that some of what he said was “horrible, even to me.”

Let’s dig into that for a moment, shall we?

12 years ago, the year was 2010. Rogan would have been 42, old enough to know better. He was just three years removed from witnessing with all of America the impact of shock jock Don Imus’s 2007 racist comments, when he referred to Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos” and “jigaboos.”

Shock Jock Don Imus called Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy headed hos” and was subsequently fired in 2007 (Credit: CBS/AP)

CBS fired the “Imus in the Morning” host one week later for what he called being “really stupid.” Well, as the saying goes, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

And Joe Rogan played stupid games.

And now he is doing his darnedest to contextualize his repeated use of the N-word.

According to Rogan, he framed his discussions based on the perspectives of Black comedians like Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Paul Mooney, as well as white comic, Lenny Bruce. Rogan said in his apology 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, and they can use it in so many ways.”

He continued, “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 punchline. It can be a term of endearment. It can be lyrics to a rap song. It can 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.”

Arguably, though, Rogan was well aware of that then—something he all but admitted in his explanation of the nuance of the N-word.

Rogan seemed clear about its incendiary nature “if a white person says that word” and still chose to utter it anyway. Again, he played stupid games. Therefore, it seems disingenuous to now apologize as if he were ignorant of the sensitive, hurtful, and inflammatory nature of the N-word, when before, he was perfectly content to be brash, contrary, bold, and unapologetic after the order of late shock jock Imus who died in 2019, one year before Rogan struck gold with Spotify.

The Joe Rogan Experience is Spotify’s most popular podcast.

The point is, Rogan cannot cry ignorance now. The apology would have been more respectable had he owned that he did in fact know better but was not evolved enough back then to want to do better. Anything else is patronizing and insincere.

As Rogan continued his downward spiral, things totally fell off a cliff when he discussed a now deleted podcast episode where he talked about seeing the film “Planet of the Apes” at a theater in a Black Philadelphia neighborhood.

“I was trying to make the story entertaining, and I said it was like we got out and we were in Africa. It’s like we were in ‘Planet of the Apes,’” he said—noting that the story “looks terrible even in context.”

Someone needs to tell Mr. Rogan that entertaining his audience at the expense of Black people is not funny now and never will be. Furthermore, this sorry tour does not feel genuine because the apology is only a reaction to a damaging video posted by Grammy-winning soul singer, India Arie.

As previously reported by EEW Magazine Online, she parted ways with Spotify in protest of Rogan’s “language around race” and the streaming service’s poor compensation plan for artists.

India Arie pulls music from Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan’s racist language around Black people.

Arie made her position clear on Rogan’s use of the N-word, saying, he “shouldn’t even be uttering the word. Don’t say it, under any context.” In his video, Rogan, who said he had not said the N-word “in years,” now agrees that “It’s not my word to use.”

It was never his word to use. But he never cared to clarify his position or highlight his evolution until his lucrative deal was threatened.

It's safe to say that Spotify has been thrown into full-blown crisis mode in its efforts to stick beside the comedian, television host, and mixed martial artist—their biggest cash cow.

Behind the scenes, the company has quietly removed over 100 episodes of his controversial show in attempts to help put out this dumpster fire.

Unfortunately, Rogan’s worst apology of all time appears to have simply thrown more gasoline on it.

Watch his full apology below. Warning: Strong Language