UFC voice Joe Rogan is in hot water again, but this time it’s not for allegations of COVID vaccine misinformation, it’s actually for dropping the N-word a bunch of times during old recordings of his long-running podcast.
Rogan has made headlines outside of MMA circles for his approach to showcasing different opinions on COVID-19 vaccines on his extremely popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. However, on Saturday he found himself in mainstream headlines once again for a very different reason.
A compilation video recently went viral on Twitter that showed the long-time comedian and UFC announcer using the N-word during old episodes of his podcast. Of course, the video led to condemnation across the social spectrum because of the highly volatile nature of the racial slur. Looking to dampen the fire as much as he could, Rogan took to his Instagram account on Saturday to apologize and explain how the video removes the context of why he used the term during recordings of the podcast series.
Video surface of Joe Rogan using the N-word during episodes of his JRE podcast
“Hello friends, I’m making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly. There’s a video out that’s a compilation of me saying the N-word. It’s a video that’s made of clips of me, taken out of context, of 12 years of conversations on my podcast,” Rogan explained. “It’s all smushed together and it looks horrible, even to me.
“Now I know, 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. I haven’t said it in years. But for a long time when I would bring that word up; like when 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.”
Rogan: ‘Whenever you’re in a situation to say I’m not racist, you’ve f*cked up’
In the over five-minute-long video, the 54-year-old explained the word came up in conversations for its unique use in entertainment. How it was used frequently in public by African-American comedians Red Foxx and Richard Pryor in the 1970s, or by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in many of his films. And Rogan made it clear he has been well aware in recent years that it is a unique term all non-black people should avoid using, including him.
“I was also talking about how there is not another word in the English language like it. We’re talking about a word only one group of people is allowed to use, and they can use it in so many different ways,” he explained. “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’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use,” he added. “I’m well aware of that now. And for years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist. But whenever you’re in a situation to say I’m not racist, you’ve f*cked up. and I clearly have f*cked up.”
Rogan recently was the target of nearly 300 medical experts, and even music legend Neil Young, for what many have called misinformation about COVID vaccines, during episodes of JRE.
Do you forgive the UFC voice for his N-word use?
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