WATCH: Joe Rogan Is Now Gatekeeping Blackness — “Unless They’re 100% African, Not Wearing Clothes All Day…”



Steph Bazzle reports on social issues and religion for Hill…
Maybe Joe Rogan just really wants to find out how much Spotify will put up with from him before they drop his podcast. Having been reliably informed that he is not a doctor and not qualified to give medical advice, it seems he’s moved on to a new role as cultural arbiter, in which he assigns himself the responsibility of determining who is Black enough to count.

(Spoiler: a sociology professor who specializes in race, religion, and African American culture does not, in Rogan’s opinion, make the cut.)
That’s right, in this clip shared by Media Matters for America journalist Alex Paterson, Rogan and his guest, Jordan Peterson, are discussing Peterson’s public image. They agree that this is split between people who consider him to be a voice of reason and a teacher of personal responsibility, and those who see him as a voice of intolerance and bigotry. They shift to discussing Michael Eric Dyson, who they say describes Peterson as “a mean angry white man.”
On Joe Rogan's Spotify podcast — Jordan Peterson claims Michael Eric Dyson is "not Black"
Rogan replies: "Unless you are talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place where they are not wearing any clothes all day … the term Black is weird." pic.twitter.com/Wyk00WHwus
— Alex Paterson (@AlexPattyy) January 25, 2022
From there the pair go into discussing race and skin color, declaring that it’s “stupid” to use the word Black, since people have a wide range of shades of skin color, and since Dyson “was brown, not Black,” at which point Rogan declares that the only people for whom the term Black should be used, in his opinion, are:
“…someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place where they are not wearing any clothes all day, and they’ve developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, even the term Black is weird.”
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Steph Bazzle reports on social issues and religion for Hill Reporter. She focuses on stories that speak to everyone's right to practice what they believe in and receive the support of their communities and government officials. You can reach her at Steph@HillReporter.com