India Arie has returned to the news cycle, as the Joe Rogan Saga continues. The famed singer and songwriter was among the first artists, alongside Neil Young, who vowed to pull their music off Spotify due to what they perceived to be as problematic behavior by Rogan.
India Arie removed her catalog from Spotify at the beginning of 2022, however, she’s since re-instated in. In the process, she’s also spoken out more on Rogan, and seemingly gone a bit back-and-forth on her stance. In the first week of February, following Rogan’s apology after a compilation video of the podcast host saying the n-word went viral, India Arie seemed to have accepted the apology.
“He said a lot of the things I would want to hear someone say. The thing that stuck out for me most was when he said, ‘It’s not my word to use.’ And I think changed behaviour is what we’re really looking for,” she said while speaking with Don Lemon at CNN.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
In her own video upload around the same time, she also stated, “To be very clear, I never called him a racist,” before continuing to explain that she simply decided to curate her “space” without Rogan in it. “Anyone who saw those videos and decided for themselves if was racist or not, that’s their perception. I think he did well with his apology. I also found some of it disingenuous,” she said.
Now, as India Arie continues to speak on the matter publicly, she has shifted her viewpoint somewhat. In the latest interview with Trevor Noah, she calls Rogan “consciously racist,” going on to say, “I think he was saying it because it got a rise out of people. That’s why he would say it. He knew that it was inappropriate, and I think the fact that he did it repeatedly and was conscious and knew, I think that is being racist.”
Nonetheless, elsewhere in the interview she added, “I don’t think being a racist makes you a bad person, necessarily. It makes you a person who was raised in our society.” Still, she advised Rogan, “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 response to the “consciously racist” aspect of the interview going viral, Trevor Noah himself also issued a response. Taking to twitter after he saw a headline that he felt didn’t accurately depict the interview, Noah wrote, “WTF??? She also said she doesn’t hate Joe Rogan, She also said we need a path to redemption, she also said it’s a complex issue. Stop using clickbait to make people angrier and hate each other. Her comments have nuance and your tweet robs her of that!”
Check out a clip from the interview with Trevor Noah below.
Let us know what you think of India Arie’s latest statements. In related news, Charlamagne Tha God seemed to echo India Arie’s earlier statements concerning Rogan here.
