It’s ‘Strange’ for People to Be Called Black Unless They’re ‘100% African’

• Joe Rogan said it’s weird to call someone “Black” unless they are “100% African from the darkest place.”
• He mentioned that his guest, Jordan Peterson, had been called a “mean, mad white man” in a debate.
• Peterson said he thinks of himself as “tan” and referred to the debater, a Black man, as “brown.”

Controversial podcast host Joe Rogan said he thinks it’s strange for people to use “Black” as a descriptor for Black people “unless you are talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place.”

In a four-hour podcast episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan discussed an array of topics — including the Bible, the Joker, and Benzodiazepine abuse — with clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson.

The two also discussed Peterson’s debate on political correctness with Michael Eric Dyson — a Black sociology professor at Georgetown University — in which Dyson referred to Peterson as a “mean, mad white man.”

Rogan, who has previously made headlines for offensive comments and spreading misinformation, called Dyson’s remarks “hilarious,” before saying that Peterson wasn’t “mean at all.”

Peterson responded by saying that he isn’t “white,” but rather, “kind of tan.”

“And he was actually not Black, he was sort of brown,” Peterson added, referring to Dyson’s skin tone.

Rogan went on to comment that “the Black and white thing is so strange because there’s such a spectrum of shades of people.”

“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 of that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, even the term Black is weird,” the podcaster added. “When you use it for people who are literally my color, it becomes very strange.”

—Alex Paterson (@AlexPattyy) January 25, 2022

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Dyson said that the pair hadn’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.” 

“Blackness is not about shade, but about the shade provided by traditions of Black thought, culture, and resistance,” he added.

The news comes after folk-rock music artist Neil Young urged Spotify to remove Joe Rogan’s podcast from their platform citing vaccine misinformation, Insider reported Monday. The platform instead chose to remove Young’s music. 

Rogan, Peterson, and Dyson did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.