While the controversy surrounding Joe Rogan and his Spotify-helmed podcast has died down a bit recently, as the news cycle becomes dominated with Russia and Ukraine reports, there are still select celebrities offering their two cents on the matter.
It's been two weeks since we heard India Arie and Trevor Noah debate the topic of Joe Rogan saying the n-word, while Charlamagne Tha God also elucidated his opinion on the matter during one of his Brilliant Idiots episodes, around the same time. Today, the topic returns to the trending news stories of the day, as Samuel L. Jackson has spoken on the issue during a new Sunday Times interview.
The famed actor disagreed with Rogan's use of the word, no matter the context. Rogan affirmed in his apology video, "Now, I haven't said it in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like, if it would come up in conversation and instead of saying the n-word, I would just say the word – I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing." He concluded, "there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast," nonetheless, it seems too little, too late in Jackson's eyes.
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"He is saying nobody understood the context when he said it," Jackson told the publication, apparently rolling his eyes in response. "But he shouldn’t have said it. It’s not the context, dude — it’s that he was comfortable doing it. Say that you’re sorry because you want to keep your money, but you were having fun and you say you did it because it was entertaining."
Jackson continued, "It needs to be an element of what the story is about. A story is context — but just to elicit a laugh? That’s wrong."
As the conversation on use of the n-word continued, Jackson spoke about working with Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained. Apparently, Leo hesitated to use the word so frequently, but both Jackson and Tarantino told him he had to.
"Every time someone wants an example of overuse of the N-word, they go to Quentin — it’s unfair. He’s just telling the story and the characters do talk like that. When Steve McQueen does it, it’s art. He’s an artiste. Quentin’s just a popcorn filmmaker," Jackson said.
He continued to reveal, "While we were rehearsing Django Unchained, Leo said, ‘I don’t know if I can say ‘n*****’ this many times.' Me and Quentin said that you have to."
We'll have to see if this elicits a response from Rogan or brings the controversy back into public discourse.