Why Joe Rogan’s Apology Is Risky

By Madeleine Kearns

Monday, February 07, 2022

 

Spotify was already under pressure to fire the podcaster Joe Rogan, ostensibly on account of his alleged Covid misinformation. The Covid controversy sparked an exodus of Spotify artists including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Now, Rogan’s enemies have dug up an even more incendiary controversy. On her Instagram account, the artist India Arie shared a video compilation of Rogan using the N-word multiple times on various episodes of his podcast and drawing what appears to be a comparison between an all-black community and Planet of the Apes.

 

Rogan had already attempted to appease his Covid critics by offering assurances that he would do a better job to “balance” controversial topics and guests. In his statement, the streaming service’s chief executive Daniel Ek said the same. However, this latest accusation of racism betrays the previous Covid complaints for what they were: a pretext. The real reason Rogan’s critics want to silence him is because they don’t like his views and guests. And they will use whatever they find to bring him down.

 

When the mob comes for you, you have but two choices. One is to stand firm, to refuse to apologize because it is not really an apology the mob is after. This is what Tucker Carlson did when Media Matters dug up his decade-old comments about women to the talk-radio host Bubba the Love Sponge. The other option is to apologize and hope for mercy. While it may be right morally to apologize when you regret offensive remarks — and likely was in this case — tactically, it can be a mistake.

 

Rogan has picked the riskier route, most likely because the comments were unquestionably offensive. He made a video describing his past comments as “regretful and shameful.” He said that while he hasn’t said the N-word in years, he now recognizes that there is no context in which “a white person can say that word.” He noted that some of the clips were “taken out of context,” since he was mostly quoting others, or merely discussing how there is “no other word like it in the English language” (rather than say “N-word,” he just said the word).

 

Rogan reiterated that the N-word is unusual in the sense that there are different rules for different groups of people. So, if a white person uses it, then it is “racist and toxic.” But if a black person uses the word, it can be “a punchline, a term of endearment, lyrics to a rap song,” or even “a positive affirmation.” This double standard has landed many people in trouble. For example, Mimi Groves, a high-school student, having just passed her driving test, sent her friends a Snapchat saying “I can drive, n*****.” A vindictive classmate then kept it until he thought it would cause Groves maximum damage — in the wake of George Floyd, after Groves had been accepted to her dream college on a scholarship.

 

After giving some more context to his use of the N-word, Rogan apologized unreservedly for his Planet of the Apes remark. He said he knew this to be “terrible,” even “in context.” He had been telling a story about a time that he and some friends got high and were going to see Planet of the Apes, but were dropped off in an all-black neighborhood. In “trying to make the story entertaining,” he said it was as though they’d been dropped off in Africa. “I did not, nor would I ever say, that black people are apes but it sure f***ing sounded like that,” Rogan said. He said he had long since deleted the podcast and was mortified to see that it had resurfaced.

 

When Whoopi Goldberg recently said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race, Jews had every right to be offended by her ignorance. But that’s exactly what it was — ignorance. Not antisemitism.

 

There was no reason to suspend her. Likewise, Joe Rogan said something racially offensive, but considering his recent comments, this was not out of racism but out of a very inappropriate attempt at humor.

 

The difference is that what Rogan said was years ago. Spontaneous offense to a racially insensitive joke is not what we’re seeing here. To have any meaningful effect, apologies require humility and good faith in both the giver and the receiver. Sadly, though, cancel culture is a zero-sum game. The vindictive mob after Joe Rogan is not really interested in what was said, only in who said it.