Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson rescinds Joe Rogan support after N-Word controversy
Clips of Rogan using the N-word on his podcast, 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' resurfaced on social media.
As many celebrities have disapproved of Joe Rogan and his podcast, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson publicly showed his support. That is, until revelations that Rogan used the N-word on his show in the past.
Rogan was being taken to task for spreading misinformation surrounding COVID-19 on episodes of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Last week, following reports that singers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell requested to have their catalogs removed from Spotify, Rogan responded to his critics on social media.
In a nine-minute Instagram video post, Rogan addressed the issue, stating that his show is about “telling the truth” and having “interesting conversations with people who have differing opinions.” Johnson left a comment on the video. “Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated,” he wrote. “Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you.”
Johnson backtracked that support after revelations of Rogan using the N-word began to resurface on social media following Rogan’s video. Rogan was also called out by singer/songwriter India Arie.
The Grammy-winning singer posted on Instagram that she was also removing her songs from Spotify due to Rogan’s “language around race” as well as issues with COVID-19.
Rogan, in addition to using the N-word, once referenced “Planet of the Apes” as a comparison for a Black American neighborhood during one episode.
Author Don Winslow sent an open tweet to Johnson about the matter on Feb. 4. “You’re a hero to many people and using your platform to defend Joe Rogan, a guy that used and laughed about using the N-word dozens of times, is a terrible use of your power,” Winslow posted. “Have you actually listened to this man’s many racist statements about Black people?”
Johnson retweeted Winslow’s message, saying “Thank you so much for this I hear you as well as everyone here 100% I was not aware of his N-word use before my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”
Rogan responded to the N-word controversy on Instagram, calling it “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.” Although he stated that the clips of him using the word were taken out of context, he acknowledged that he knows now that he should not have said the word at all.
Rogan said he’s not racist, “but whenever you’re in a situation when you have to say, ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f–ked up, and I clearly have f–ked up.”
Spotify, who signed Rogan to a $100 million deal for his show, has removed 70 episodes from the streaming platform in light of this revelation, reported by Variety.
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