Former Democratic presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is apologizing for tweeting that podcast host Joe Rogan isn’t racist because he “works with black people.”
Rogan, who has also been under fire over coronavirus misinformation on his popular podcast, apologized Saturday for his repeated past use of racial slurs.
“I don’t think Joe Rogan is a racist — the man interacts with and works with black people literally all of the time,” Yang initially tweeted on Sunday.
In a new Twitter thread, Yang wrote that he deleted the tweet because it was “wrong-headed,” adding it wasn’t his intent to hurt people’s feelings and he’s learning from the incident.
“I like to believe the best of people — especially if I’ve met and spent time with that person. Sometimes it makes me miss something. I think we should have the capacity to forgive people — whether a podcaster or a mayor — if they mess up,” Yang said. “Maybe it’s because I mess up, too.”
“Racism is real, deep, corrosive and even lethal. I know that. I made a mistake in an earlier tweet tonight that downplayed these realities,” he added.
Yang’s tweet initially drew backlash, including a response from Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison.
“Dude… seriously?! You joking right Andrew? Is that now the new defining line… working with folks?!” Harrison said in a tweet.
Musicians Neil Young, India Arie, Joni Mitchell and others recently removed their catalogs from the internet streaming platform Spotify in protest of COVID-19 misinformation on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Arie also shared through social media a post of Rogan saying a racist slur 20 times on his podcast.
Spotify later removed more than 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast.
“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,” Rogan said in a statement over the weekend.
“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,” he added.