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India Arie has labeled Joe Rogan “consciously racist” for his repeated use of the N-word.
On Feb. 5, Spotify’s popular U.S. podcaster apologized after a video compilation surfaced that showed him using a racial slur in clips of episodes over a 12-year span.
The apology came after the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter posted the compilation on Instagram and announced that she was removing her music from the streaming platform because of it.
On Monday, Arie appeared on “The Daily Show” and discussed the situation with host Trevor Noah.
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India Arie called Joe Rogan “consciously racist” during her appearance on ‘The Daily Show’. (David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images – Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
“There’s conscious racism… when you know you’re doing it… If you know you’re doing it, and you keep doing it, I would say that is racist,” the 46-year-old explained. “When I think of Joe Rogan, I think he is being consciously racist… And so saying it, and then being like, ‘What are you gonna do? Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean that,’ or ‘I didn’t understand. There was no context under which I should say it’ – I don’t believe that. I think he knew there was no context. I think that’s why he was saying it because it got a rise out of people.”
“He knew that was inappropriate,” she shared. “… The fact that he did it repeatedly… I think that is being racist. And I don’t even like saying that because I’m a sensitive old soul and I want to believe the best in people.”
Arie said after she heard the 54-year-old’s apology, her first instinct was to go, “he tried.”
“But when I go deeper and ask myself what I really think… what I really think is that he was being consciously racist,” said Arie. “It makes me wonder what he talks like behind closed doors. If you have even a consciousness where you can call Black people apes, there’s something there.”
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India Arie is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who is fighting to get her music removed from Spotify. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for BET)
In a video posted on his Instagram account, Rogan, who hosts a podcast called “The Joe Rogan Experience,” said his use of the N-word in the compilation Arie posted was the “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.” But he said the clips were “taken out of context.”
“It’s not my word to use. I am well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner,” he said during the six-minute video. “I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist.”
He did not specify which years he used the racial slur.
Rogan also addressed a clip from his podcast 11 years ago in which he talked about going to a movie theater in a Black neighborhood to see “Planet of the Apes.”
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Spotify is facing growing discontent from artists over Joe Rogan’s podcast, which it reportedly paid more than $100 million to license. (Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)
“I was trying to make the story entertaining, and I said we got out and it was like we were in Africa. It’s like we were in ‘Planet of the Apes,’” Rogan said. He said he wasn’t trying to be racist but realized it was “an idiotic thing” to say. He said he deleted the podcast but that someone must have saved the clip.
Arie noted that she would like to see more coming from Rogan than just issuing an apology.
“If you’re Joe Rogan and you have this huge listening audience, by you doing that, you embolden them to do that, and now we’re in trouble as a society,” she said about his repeated use of racist language. “If you have the power to institute it, and you have this whole audience that is now thinking maybe it’s OK for them to do it, now we are in trouble with this atomic bomb… I don’t think we’ve seen [enough] changed behavior from Joe Rogan to say… ‘We’re good now.’ Because I don’t think he fully understands what he did there.”
Since speaking out, Arie said that her DMs and comments section on Instagram has been flooded with “all kinds” of racist, misogynistic remarks.
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Comedian Joe Rogan responded to criticism over past racist comments. (Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
“That says to me that these people who want to defend Joe Rogan think that this is the right language to do it,” she explained. “So Joe Rogan needs to do more than go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m sorry.’ If you want to really lead your listeners down a new path, then lead them to the point where they don’t feel that it’s the right language to come into my DMs and call me the N-word in defense of him. He needs to teach them that they shouldn’t feel that way. They’re not making him look good.”
“I would love to see him do more work around tackling what he did and what it’s all about,” Arie continued. “… If you are a certain type of person in this world, if you’re not doing, especially as a white person – I want to say if you’re not doing the work to not be a racist, then it’s in you. So Joe Rogan is given the opportunity now to do the work and to teach other people… Learn from yourself and then lead them. ‘Cause now you’re making this world a better place… The thing that fixes things is talking.”
When it comes to just saying sorry, Arie stressed “that’s not enough.”
Arie also noted that she’s still “in a fight” with Spotify to get her music removed.
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Last month, musician Neil Young removed his music over concerns that Joe Rogan was magnifying vaccine skepticism. (Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports | Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
“I have to say that asking for my music to be pulled from Spotify in protest doesn’t actually serve me,” she said. “Because now my music, if things work out the way I want, my music won’t be heard on the biggest streaming platform. But I did it in protest just because I felt like my dignity was being… I felt like I was being disrespected… I’m used to being honest.”
Spotify is facing growing discontent from artists over Rogan’s podcast, which it reportedly paid more than $100 million to license. Last month, musician Neil Young removed his music over concerns that Rogan was magnifying vaccine skepticism.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.foxnews.com