Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appears to be reconsidering his support of Joe Rogan.
After India Arie shared a clip of Rogan using the N-word and other racial slurs over the course of 12 years, Johnson was taken to task online over his initial support of Rogan amid his growing Spotify controversy.
“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,” author Don Winslow tweeted at Johnson. “Have you actually listened to this man’s many racist statements about Black people?”
“Thank you so much for this,” Johnson responded. “I hear you as well as everyone here 100%. I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”
“Your life and your story have inspired a lot of people and I appreciate your response,” Winslow said, ending the exchange.
Johnson initially showed his support for Rogan after Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and other artists decided to take their music down from the streaming platform in protest of his podcast, which they alleged spread misinformation about COVID-19.
“Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated,” Johnson wrote in the comments section of an Instagram video Rogan posted addressing the controversy. Johnson also said he was looking forward to doing Rogan’s pod and “breaking out the tequila.”
Johnson also engaged with Cheri Jacobus, who has also been critical of Rogen.
“You’re all over my timeline so I wanted to share some context with you so hopefully you’re no longer triggered by headlines you read. I thought his response was contrite and more importantly, open to change to becoming better,” he initially tweeted.
Jacobus responded a day later, writing, “At least @therock didn’t tell @donwinslow he was “triggered” like he did to me yesterday.”
Glad you finally realize that I was not “triggered” and was telling the exact thing Don Winslow just told you, to which you responded,” she added.
Johnson eventually apologized to Jacobus as well.
Jacobus then accepted Johnson’s apology.
Rogan also apologized after the initial video was posted by Arie. “There’s a video that’s out, that’s a compilation of me saying the N-word,” Rogan said in an IG clip. “It’s a video that’s made of clips taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it’s all smushed together, and it looks fuckin’ horrible, even to me.”
Rogen added that he hasn’t “said it in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the N-word’, I would just say the word.” Rogen added that he “never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist.”
Spotify has since removed 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast from its platform.
