Singer and songwriter India.Arie has joined other artists like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren by pulling her music off the Spotify streaming service platform.
While the other artists are protesting against The Joe Rogan Experience podcast for Joe Rogan's misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, India.Arie is leaving the streaming platform due to his troublesome views and comments about race, Stereogum reports.
Monday evening, the singer announced her decision to remove her music and her SongVersation podcast from Spotify in a post on her Instagram page.
"Neil Young opened a door that I must walk through," she said in an Instagram post, adding, "I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his COVID interviews. For me, it's also his language around race."
The veteran performer most likely is referring to the interview Rogan had with Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson. During the interview, the two spoke about scholar Michael Eric Dyson, with Peterson saying he “is actually not Black," and insisted that he was "brown."
From there, Rogan added his erroneous viewpoint on the concept of race.
"Unless you are talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place where they are not wearing any clothes all day … the term Black is weird," the podcast host, who believes his Italian ancestry gives him some understanding of the Black identity, said, according to the Daily Beast.
CNN correspondent Paula Newton described the conversation between Rogan and Peterson as reductive and said that Peterson lacks expertise on any of the topics discussed on the show.
Despite the controversy, other celebrities have come out in support of Rogan, such as boxer Laila Ali, The Rock and Tulsi Gabbard, according to Gawker.
