After spend more than 15 minutes breaking why does he feel Joe Rogan’s sorry for the history of racist jokes and comments on his popular Spotify podcast so lousy last week, Trevor Noah doubled down on Monday night, flipping the whole thing Daily program episode to an extended conversation with the singer, who helped break up the controversy in the first day of this month.
“Tonight we were planning an episode about the Super Bowl and Ukraine and just needed to keep up with all the news, but I actually had one of my favorite conversations with a human that I don’t know. I used to think I could,” Noah said at the beginning of the Valentine’s Day broadcast before introducing his guest, India.Arie.
Just over a week ago, India.Arie posted a video on Instagram showcasing a shocking compilation about Rogan using “N-word” along with a clip in which he compares the cinema in the Negro neighborhood to Planet of the monkeys. She announced that she is joining other artists who are asking the label to remove their music from Spotify, explaining that she doesn’t want her artwork to help pay the price for hate speech. his.
India.Arie told Noah that while removing her music from Spotify in protest doesn’t really serve her interests, she feels like she’s been “disrespected”, adding that she “don’t expect anyone to listen” because she “is used to this some form of handling from the industry that they don’t listen to. “
Now, she explains, she’s “still in a fight” to get her music off Spotify, with Universal Music Group refusing to follow through on her wishes. “But that is a completely different conversation,” added India.Arie.
India.Arie explains that she always tries to distinguish between “conscious” and “unconscious” racism, offering to “forgive” the latter, before coming to the conclusion that when it comes to Joe Rogan, “he is being consciously racist. ”
She said: “I think he said it because it made a splash. “That’s why he would say it. He knew that was inappropriate. And I think the fact that he’s done it so many times and consciously and knowingly, I think that’s being racist.”
When she first heard his apology, India.Arie said that her first instinct was to give him the benefit of the doubt and say “he tried”, but “when I was gone” dig deeper and ask myself, what do I really think about committing to the fact that I did this last year, what I really think is he’s being consciously racist and what That made me wonder how he spoke behind closed doors. ”
“I think he said it because it popped up from people. That’s why he would say it. He knew that was inappropriate. And I think the fact that he’s done it many times and consciously and knowingly, I think it’s racist behavior.”
“As a comedian”, Noah seems to have a tendency to protect Rogan, as he did right after the podcaster’s apologyAsk his guest what “the path to redemption” might be for him, assuming that “we all want people to be better.”
“I don’t think being racist makes you a bad person,” India.Arie replied. “It makes you someone who was raised in our society.” But when you put the “strength” of someone like Rogan, who has a huge audience, behind those racist ideas, “it’s racist” and he’s “encouraging” His listeners do the same thing.
When Noah pressures her to say when we, as a society, should accept Rogan’s apology, India.Arie tells him that she hasn’t seen enough evidence that he has really. change.
“I don’t think he fully understood what he did,” she said, noting that she had received a barrage of racial slurs from his fans. “If you want to really lead your listeners down a new path, then lead them, to the point where they don’t feel it’s the right language to use in my TV sets, and call me ‘N-word’ to defend him. . ”
For more, listen and subscribe The last laugh audio file.
