Or if he's racist but unable to admit it to himself. In other words, thanks to attributional ambiguity, Black people now must wonder if Rogan is secretly racist. In fact, you can argue that - by providing more palatable ways for fans to use a horrible racial slur and laughing off a joke he admitted was racist – Rogan did damage that is tougher to address than an admitted racist openly advocating white supremacy. But here is where Rogan is learning a difficult truth: He's wrong. So, bringing it all back to Rogan's case, he seems to be insisting that – because he doesn't view himself as a racist – his use of the n-word and telling of a joke that he admitted in the moment was racist were somehow not expressions of racism. This is a race-centered version of a type of bias also called moral licensing, where people believe that because they are generally good, that outweighs moments when they do negative things. In that class, I told the students about something I have often called bigotry denial syndrome – the belief that, because you personally don't view yourself as a bigot, you don't believe that you can say or do something that is seriously bigoted or damaging. I'm teaching a course at Duke University right now about race and media. And, for marginalized people, it's also about figuring out which media voices we can trust. The bigger issue is the way such jokes foster acceptance of stereotypes that are damaging and persistent prejudices which can affect everything from how police react in an emergency to who gets hired for a job or gets to rent an apartment. I would disagree with Noah on one point: The problem here isn't just that Rogan may have hurt feelings or given offense.

Daily Show host Trevor Noah delivers a commentary on Joe Rogan's n-word controversy.

Joe rogan spotify scandal