Joe Rogan says “it’s very strange” to call someone Black in his interview with Jordan Peterson.
Joe Rogan is back in the news as he has recently been called out for his blatant racism in his most recent podcast interview with Jordan Peterson on Spotify.
American commentator Joe Rogan and Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson sat down for a podcast interview consisting of many remarks about racial identity and skin tones which are being deemed as racist. The two also spoke about Michael Eric Dyson, who had called Peterson a “mean, angry, white man” back in 2018.
Rogan gave his opinion, stating that Dyson’s comments were incorrect, telling Peterson he is “not mean at all.” They then went on to joke about how it was also a lie to call Peterson a white man because he states he has a bit of a tan. Peterson also added that “he [Dyson] was actually not Black. He was sort of brown.”
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Bennett Raglin/Getty Images — Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
This conversation then led into Rogan’s deep dive into the “strangeness” of “the black and white thing,” referring to the way society divides people into different ethnicities with few words though there is such a large scale of options.
“The black and white thing is so strange because there is such a spectrum of shades of people,” he explains. “Unless you are talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place where they are not wearing any clothes all day, and they have developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, even the term Black is weird. When you use it for people that are literally my color it becomes very strange.”
These comments have sparked an uproar of criticism as many have called Rogan and Peterson out for their racism. Even Michael Eric Dyson responded:
“Clearly they haven’t kept up with discussion about how race isn’t just about skin tone or color, but about a host of meanings determined in the social world,” Dyson explained to The Daily Beast. “Blackness is not about shade, but about the shade provided by traditions of Black thought, culture, and resistance.”