Arie told Don Lemon she thinks that Rogan is “insensitive,” but not racist.
Joe Rogan’s apology may not have won over everyone in the world, but it was enough to satisfy 46-year-old India Arie, who put the podcaster on blast earlier this month for his frequent use of the n-word in at least 70 past episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience.
“It looks f*cking horrible, even to me,” the New Jersey native told his Instagram followers in an apology video after the damning clip went viral. “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, and I agree with that now.”
While some of his fans stuck loyally by Rogan’s side, many social media users took the time to dissect and critique his apology, calling him out for being “barely remorseful.” Arie, however, was pleased to see Rogan’s growth. “I have to say, I think he did a fine job with his apology,” the R&B vocalist shared on CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight.
“He said a lot of the things I would want to hear someone say. The thing that stuck out for me most was when he said, ‘It’s not my word to use.’ And I think changed behaviour is what we’re really looking for,” she continued.
As you may have heard, the “Brown Skin” singer is just one of a handful of artists who pledged to remove their streaming catalogue from Spotify after the platform continued to support Rogan despite spreading potentially harmful misinformation on his show. When chatting with Lemon, she revealed that, while the former Fear Factor host is not THE reason she left Spotify, “he is the final reason.”
After her chat with Don Lemon began circulating online, Arie shared a video to her own Instagram page, sharing some further thoughts on the situation. “To be very clear, I never called him a racist,” she said about halfway through the upload.
“What I did, in the curation of my space, is say, ‘I don’t like this here. I don’t want to be here,'” the Denver native added, speaking on her decision to share the video of Rogan’s problematic behaviour and walk away from Spotify.
“Anyone who saw those videos and decided for themselves if was racist or not, that’s their perception. I think he did well with his apology. I also found some of it disingenuous,” she admitted, going on to remind listeners that “everyone on the planet knows that [the n-word] is loaded.”
