Joe Rogan issued another apology earlier today, this time for racist comments he’s made throughout the years on his popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator and comedian has become one of the most influential voices in social media and American culture today. His ability to reach millions and millions of people with his Spotify podcast has put Rogan in a position of virtual power. Rogan is able to deliver a message and have it reach a large collection of people.
That said, Rogan understands his current position of influence and overall ability to reach the masses. That’s the reason he recently delivered a social media message to all his fans, supporters and biggest critics after a viral video surfaced, showing racist comments Rogan has made throughout the years. Rogan apologized for the racist comments, explaining that they were taken out of context, while at the same time admitting the n-word never should have left his lips.
Check out the video below courtesy of his Instagram:
“I know that to most people there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast,” Rogan said. “I agree with that now and haven’t said it in years. But, for a long time when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying the ‘n-word.’ I would just say the word. I thought as long as it was in context people would understand what I was doing.
“I do hope that if anything this can be a teachable moment,” he later added. “I never thought it would be taken out of context and put in a video like that. Now that it is, holy s—t does it look bad.
Perhaps Spotify was attempting to head off an ugly incident like this at the pass months ago, but nothing is ever forgotten nor truly deleted in today’s digital age.
Nevertheless, this is not the first time Rogan has had to issue an apology for comments made on his podcast. Earlier this month, Rogan was accused of spreading misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccinations, specifically in young people. It caused a social media uproar and UFC’s commentator was compelled to issue an apology.
Rogan’s most recent apology for past racist comments has already surpassed two million views in just six hours at the time of this writing.