Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, 49, upset many fans after initially defending Joe Rogan, 54, at the very beginning of the Spotify/COVID-19 misinformation debacle. Now, it appears that the famous wrestler/actor is starting to see the harmful rhetoric Rogan has promoted online over the years, this time with resurfaced videos in which the podcaster used extremely racist and inappropriate language.
Fans may remember that weeks ago, when Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music off the platform in protest of Rogan’s controversial podcast and its spread of COVID-19 misinformation, one of his most notable supporters was Johnson, who commented on Rogan’s January 30th Instagram apology video. “Great stuff here brother,” Johnson wrote in response to Rogan’s post. “Perfectly articulated. Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you.”
That same day, R&B artist India.Arie announced via her IG that she would also be removing her music off of Spotify in protest of Rogan’s anti-masking and anti-vaccination claims. She uploaded a compilation video to her story on January 4th— featuring clear, unmistakable clips of Rogan saying the N-word ethnic slur countless times on his podcast and throughout his career. (This is what many fans attempted to tell Johnson through tagging him on Instagram and Twitter).
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After days of his fans sharing this on social media, it somehow wasn’t until Johnson saw author Don Winslow’s February 4th tweet to him (about Rogan’s problematic history) that he acknowledged it. “You’re a hero to many people and using your platform to defend Joe Rogan, a guy that used and laughed about using the N word dozens of times, is a terrible use of your power,” Winslow wrote. “Have you actually listened to this man’s many racist statements about Black people?”
Johnson (whose father, wrestler Rocky Johnson, was Black) responded to Winslow hours later, writing, “Thank you so much for this. I hear you as well as everyone here 100% I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative.” He continued, acknowledging this was a “learning moment” for him (although he might have been okay with Rogan’s other baseless comments against the COVID-19 vaccine before this?)
Rogan has since released another apology video addressing his racist, “regretful” and “shameful” language, but it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever gain The Rock’s (or thousands of other former listeners’) support ever again.
