A white Mississippi news anchor was let go from her position recently for on-air “racism.”
Her crime? She committed the very serious and racist offense of quoting one of the most popular pop culture icons in the United States whose rap music regularly appears throughout the media.
Via Yahoo! News:
On Wednesday (March 8), a white Mississippi news anchor for WLBT named Barbie Bassett recited Snoop Dogg’s popular catchphrase, “Fo’ shizzle, my nizzle,” on-air. The commentary was in reference to a story about the Death Row Recordsowner’s latest business venture, Snoop Cali Blanc.
Fellow WLBT anchor Wilson Stribling joked that a colleague may get a Snoop Dogg-inspired tattoo, following in the likes of Martha Stewart. To which Bassett replied, “Fo shizzle, my nizzle.” Meteorologist Patrick Ellis was visibly stunned after the comment was uttered.
Mississippi news anchor Barbie Basset fired for saying “Fo Shizzle My Nizzle” live on air when discussing Snoop Dog new wine collection. She has been a news anchor at the company for over 20 years. 👀😳
pic.twitter.com/zWBAOlvHyk— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) March 25, 2023
The report claims the meteorologist alongside Basset was “visibly stunned,” but it seems more like he was in on the joke of a middle-aged white woman using ridiculous urban slang. In the aftermath of the comment, he may also have seemed stunned because he knew that BLM-style internet activists were going to run hog-wild with this story — which they did, of course.
Clearly, repeating verbatim the lyrics and catchphrases that nearly every American, whether willingly or not, has been made to consume for decades is a bridge too far.
Related: Professor Who Questioned Systemic Racism Sues the University That Fired Him
For the uninitiated, “fo shizzle, my nizzle” is a G-rated version of “for sure, my n***a,” a common phrase uttered with various modifiers in many contexts in the African-American lexicon.
It’s a stupid phrase — comically so, which is why Bassett was repeating it. Being (apparently) around 45 years old and probably not having attended public school in Atlanta, as I did, she could not have been reasonably expected to know what the phrase meant, even if we accept the premise that it is hate speech when an obscure white woman on TV says it but it’s an empowering, reclamatory phrase for a millionaire rapper.
This is the same tired, recurring melodrama that envelops the media for a cycle every time a white person is excommunicated from polite society for being the wrong skin color while saying words.
It happened a few months back in Atlanta to a public school teacher who politely informed students who were calling each other n***as during class instead of paying attention that they shouldn’t use that word. Unfortunately for him, he actually used the word, as in “You can’t call each other n***as in class when you’re supposed to be learning.” A nationwide scandal erupted.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member