2022 has been simultaneously kind and harsh to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his high-flying career in Hollywood. The DC actor who finally witnessed his 15-year dream of playing a major anti-hero comic character, Black Adam, in live-action cinema coming true was quick to see the flames of his rise at the franchise being extinguished. However, the short-lived attempt at utter box-office domination was well-justified, considering the limited-edition joy that was served at the theatres by The Rock and Henry Cavill’s once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
Joe Rogan Lands in Hot Water After Using Racial Slurs
Podcast host and public speaker, Joe Rogan, had come under immense critical backlash following the use of an offensive slur on his popular Spotify show, The Joe Rogan Experience. The podcast is generally known to be a who’s who affair of celebrities, television stars, industry experts, and Hollywood personalities who sit and discuss everything that’s trending at the current moment.
However, despite Rogan being on board with the current socio-political climate, it seems that the podcast host had intentionally missed the memo which states that the repeated use of offensive words might be a contentious point for the masses. As such, when protests broke out over social media, and artists began taking down their albums from Spotify in response, the platform removed more than 70 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience from the channel as a repercussion.
Joe Rogan later issued a public apology on video, saying, “I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you f—– up, and I clearly have f—– up.” And it was quickly followed up by attempts at reparation as the podcast host claimed to be more understanding and receptive to his audience’s perspective and opinions.
The Rock Attempts Reparation After Joe Rogan’s Blunder
The critical backlash faced by Joe Rogan reached a peak over the initial few weeks of 2022, and the use of racial slurs was merely one of the several aspects that managed to catch up to the podcast host. Rogan claimed:
“I can’t go back in time and change what I said, I wish I could, obviously that’s not possible, but I do hope this could be a teachable moment for anybody that doesn’t realize how offensive that word could be coming out of a white person’s mouth, in context or out of context.”
However, a Hollywood celebrity would also go on to be attached to the narrative and later had to come out in defense of his actions as well. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson claimed in response to a Joe Rogan story in the LA Times, “Great stuff here brother. Perfectly articulated. Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you.”
The comment which was understood by the public as a support for Rogan after his recent fiasco quickly became a sensation and The Rock issued an apology stating:
“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. Learning moment for me.”
Dear @donwinslow
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.
Learning moment for me.Mahalo, brother and have a great & productive weekend.
DJ https://t.co/3mBf85wRoe— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 5, 2022
Dwayne Johnson is yet to appear on one of Joe Rogan’s podcast episodes, and the actor’s appearance looks more far-fetched with every passing day, especially after Rogan spoke out against The Rock’s physique and workout regimen, sparking online controversy by indirectly claiming that the Black Adam actor should come clean about using steroids.
Source: Twitter | The Rock
