Joe Rogan apologises for using N-word and racist Planet of the Apes story

[CJD]

That Planet of the Apes story is, objectively, a racist story. Now, Joe says he isn't a racist, but he only says that because he has it in his head that a "racist" is only someone who looks at a black person and rage fills their heart.

He doesn't realize that casual or comedic racism is still racism. I know why he told that story the way he did. He was going to see a movie, Planet of the Apes and he happened to go to a black neighborhood. There's a long standing racist trope that black people behave like or look like apes. So in his brain, he linked the two and made a joke. He thought of it as a clever quip.

He wasn't, in that moment, thinking "I'm going to insult black people in 3...2...1...." so, in his mind, he isn't racist.

He didn't invent the racist link between black people and apes. He didn't even necessarily endorse the link. But his mind is geared that way because of years of exposure to those racist tropes.

In a way, Joe Rogan and his Planet of the Apes story is the perfect encapsulation of what it means when you say "racism is ingrained in our society and culture."

Or, to put it another way, that our society is systemically racist.