Shakedown? Jemele Hill challenges Spotify to pay Black podcaster Joe Rogan-type money to prove it’s not racist

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Jemele Hill, the former ESPN host whom critics have long called a “race hustler,” is now being accused of trying to use bogus charges of “racism” to shake down Spotify.

The accusation stems from remarks she made to The New York Times this week for a piece about Spotify, the streaming network that’s come under assault from the establishment press for its decision to host popular podcaster Joe Rogan.

Rogan has been under constant assault because of his willingness to challenge the establishment’s coronavirus rhetoric. The assault has come in the form of left-wing agitprop groups using clips of him speaking out of context to paint him as a racist.

And indeed, it appears Hill has bought into this narrative hook, line and sinker.

“What I would like to see, is for them to hand $100 million to somebody who is black,” she said to the Times this week for a piece published Thursday.

Critics interpreted the remark as her saying that Spotify must pay a black podcaster as much as it’s paid Rogan to prove that it’s not racist.

And given that Hill is herself a Spotify podcaster, it seemed to some that she was trying to shake down her own “employer”:

Both the establishment press and left-wing activists have in recent weeks been pummeling Rogan, with the original accusation being that his podcast is a hotbed of COVID “misinformation.”

Critics say these attacks are rooted in frustration over Rogan’s unwillingness to bend the knee and parrot the establishment’s talking points.

Instead the popular podcaster allows guests of all stripes — including conservatives and other dissenters — to speak freely on his show, even if what they have to say belies the orthodoxy of the predominantly left establishment.

And since calling Rogan out for his alleged “misinformation” wasn’t enough to get him ousted, the establishment eventually resorted to accusing him of racism as well:

Spotify has mostly refused to take the bait, with CEO Daniel Elk making it clear in a statement earlier this month that he does “not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.”

In the same statement, he did however vow to spent $100 million to license, develop and market music and audio content from so-called “historically marginalized groups.” This was seen as him bending the knee, albeit slightly.

Returning to the present, critics believe Hill’s now attempting to both make Spotify bend the knee all the way and also earn herself a nice payday in the process.

The problem, they say, is that she isn’t worth as much as Rogan because her podcast, which critics say is obsessively focused on race, isn’t nearly as popular:

But just like infamous racial essentialist Ibram X. Kendi, who’s become extremely popular among members of the establishment press, Hill appears to see everything in terms of black and white, not numbers (i.e., ratings).

Because if she did also care about numbers, she’d know that Spotify is teeming with black voices, some of whom have also received high-value deals like Rogan, including former first lady Michelle Obama:

While it was never publicly announced how much she’d earned from the deal, it’s presumed it was a lot — certainly a lot more than Hill.

Vivek Saxena

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