India Arie Calls Joe Rogan’s Repeated Use of the ‘N-Word’ ‘Consciously Racist’ on The Daily Show: ‘He Knew it Was Inappropriate’

Trevor Noah’s entire Monday night episode was dedicated to a conversation with India Arie, in which the two discussed the Joe Rogan controversy and unconscious versus conscious racism.

“Tonight, we had an episode planned around the Super Bowl and Ukraine and just catching up on all the news, but I had truly one of my favorite conversations with a human being that I ever thought I could have,” Noah said Monday before introducing Arie.

The Grammy-winning artist recently shared a compilation video of Rogan repeatedly using the “N-word” on his podcast over the years, in addition to another clip of him comparing a movie theater in a Black neighborhood to The Planet of the Apes.

The video went viral, prompting an apology from Rogan, which Noah took issue with last week, calling his Planet of the Apes remark “the original, old-school racism.”

Arie’s decision to post the video also came after she announced plans to pull her music from Spotify, citing Rogan’s “language around race.”

“Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through,” Arie wrote in an Instagram post. “I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews. For me, it’s also his language around race.”

While speaking to Noah on Monday, Arie revealed that she has still been unable to remove her music from the platform, as Universal Music Group has fought to keep her on Spotify.

The artist later discussed the difference between being consciously and unconsciously racist, calling Rogan out for knowing that using the racial slur was inappropriate.

“I was going to say this name I’m tired of saying, but for me when I think about Joe Rogan, I think that he is being consciously racist,” she told Noah. “I mean, since the early 1900s, we’ve had an agreement in our society that we don’t say the word or you have to suffer consequences.

“So saying it and going ‘what are you going to do?’ Or saying, ‘I didn’t know there was no context under which I couldn’t say it,’ I believe he knew there was no context, and he was saying it because it got a rise out of people,” she continued. “He knew it was inappropriate. The fact that he did it repeatedly and was conscious and knew—I think that is being racist, and I don’t like even saying that because I’m a sensitive old soul, and I want to believe the best in people.”

Arie later revealed that she has received vitriol from Rogan fans since she spoke out against the podcaster, pointing to the hateful and racist language they use towards her.

“If you want to really lead your listeners down a new path, then lead them, to the point where they don’t feel that is the right language to come in my DMs and call me an ‘N-word’ in defense of him,” she said.

Watch above, via Comedy Central.

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