Joe Rogan, Racism and Language and Identity
Rogan, India Arie
When I want to know what ignorant racists are thinking and saying about something in the news I check out the comments for Deadline Hollywood, an entertainment site where the worst people in the world gather to spew bigotry and hatred.
An article about Joe Rogan apologizing for using the N word literally dozens of times on his podcast over a period of years, something that somehow did not keep Spotify from paying him ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS to make one of the most powerful and influential broadcasters on the planet even more powerful and influential, enraged commenters.
They were very, very angry and filled with questions. But these questions didn’t involve urgently inquiring why Spotify didn’t do due diligence and realize that Rogan at one point very publicly compared being in a black neighborhood to being in Planet of the Apes.
No, the commenters had one question and one question only: why was a blameless victim like Joe Rogan being crucified for using the N word yet black rappers and comedians use it freely without punishment or consequence?
Wasn’t it the height of hypocrisy for a white podcaster notorious for giving white supremacists a massive platform to broadcast their beliefs to be condemned for using an incredibly painful, poisonous, anti-black word when Snoop Dogg is not punished similarly?
The answer to this oft-asked question is simple and self-evident. It’s okay for black rappers to use that word but not white podcasters with problematic views involving race because the black rappers are black.
Oh goodie!
When you belong to a group, you have more leeway in terms of language, jokes and ideas involving that group and its culture. I’m Jewish, so I can make jokes about Jews being neurotic and having weak stomachs. It’s the same with mental illness. I can make jokes about mental illness because I have struggled with it all my life. So when I joke about being depressed or having intense anxiety is coming from a place of understanding and identity, not cruelty.
The commenters apoplectic that black entertainers can use language that they cannot know this. Implicit in their complaints that Cardi B can use words that Joe Rogan cannot is a delusional belief that they should be able to use any racial slur they’d like and/or black people should not be allowed to say words they cannot.
There’s a sort of double racism at play in these comments. On the most surface level, they’re not angry that Joe Rogan has used the N word but they’re hopping mad that those awful rappers with their potty mouths and raging libidos have freedoms they personally do not possess, like being able to use the N word without people thinking they’re racist and hate black people.
These awful people would like to control what black people can say and how they can communicate but they also want to have the awful power of using that awful word without consequences.
So the next time someone, hiding under anonymity, angrily asks why it’s okay for black people to use that word, know that there’s even more bigotry and racism under the sentiment than you would first think, and that question, and those just like it, are already pretty damn bigoted on the surface.
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