WATCH: Eric Michael Dyson Responds to Joe Rogan’s ‘Blackness’ Slams
Since he’s been at Spotify, Joe Rogan has created plenty of controversies. Most of these controversies have to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, but earlier this week, the comic opened up a new Pandora’s box.
The CNN host asked, “So just — it was kind of a weird thing to say, to refer to people as Black. That’s what he said, it’s weird to refer to people as Black unless they are from Africa, not wearing any clothes. There’s a fundamental misunderstanding, as you’ve been pointing out, of what it means to be Black.”
Dyson responded:
“Absolutely. They’re harkening back to Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” Brother Rogan is smarter than that. People who are in Africa who don’t wear clothes, who have deeper melanin, was he speaking about thousands of years ago? Is he talking about today? When he refers to what it means to be African. When he refers to what it means to be Black. Are you that obtuse, indifferent to truth, ignorant about traditions? But yes, so many people are. This is the same kind of ignorance that fuels the belief that CRT is being taught in elementary school. This is the same kind of ignorance that would have us believe that 1619 is an anti-democratic, anti-American project. This is the nature of the whiteness we continually confront. This is willful ignorance. This is not, oh my God, I just don’t understand it. It’s too complicated. No. What’s too complicated is to acknowledge your whiteness, your privilege, your perspective. The shades through which you view the world and the ways in which whiteness provides a kind of lens through which we view it.”
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