Did a White Anchor Deserve to Be Fired for Quoting Snoop Dogg? Fo’ Shizzle
Mississippi anchor Barbie Bassett lost her discrimination appeal after claiming a Black journalist wouldn't have been fired for saying "fo' shizzle, my nizzle" on air.
Have you ever been at a party or gathering where a white friend starts firing off rap lyrics, and you just kind of nervously stand there waiting to see if the white person is going to quote all of the lyrics? You know the words they can’t say, but you’re not sure if they do, and so you’re kind of just staring at them…with your popcorn ready.
OK, now imagine that instead of a party, this is all happening on the evening news. If you do, you are now in the mindset of a viewer of the NBC News-affiliate WLBT in Jackson, Miss. During a 2023 news story about Snoop Dogg’s wine business, news anchor Barbie Bassett, a white lady, ended the segment by saying, “Fo shizzle, my nizzle.”
The popcorn popped immediately. Complaints, predominantly from Black viewers, flooded into the station, which quickly terminated Bassett for her on-air use of the n-word euphemism.
But Bassett did not raise up off these teevees with none of these quietly. Instead, she sued the station, alleging racial discrimination. Bassett essentially argued that she was fired for rapping while white. She argued that a Black person who quoted the same lyric would not have been fired.
Bassett’s “reverse-discrimination” case was dismissed at trial, but then she appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fifth Circuit is the most conservative court in the country. They are literally the most likely court to advance a case where the white person is claiming discrimination. But last week, Bassett lost her appeal. Even the most pro-white court in the nation was like, “Lady, this ain’t it.”
Initially, I was sympathetic to Bassett’s case. As a journalist, I instinctively react negatively when journalists are fired for what they say while performing journalism. To me, quoting a Snoop Dogg lyric in a story about Snoop is presumptively OK. After all, she did use the euphemism; she wasn’t out here with a hard “r” or anything.
 | A guest post by
|