For many years, Barbie Bassett has been a familiar face to the people of Mississippi: The news anchor and meteorologist is part of the moderation team of WLBT (Lamar Broadcasting Television), which is owned by CNN. The woman with the silver-colored short hairstyle was regularly seen on the local news – until she suddenly disappeared from the scene.
There is no official confirmation from the broadcaster yet, but several US media reported unanimously that the reason was a Snoop Dogg quote: During their news broadcast, Bassett had spoken to colleagues about a new collection of wines that the rapper Snoop Dogg had put on the market. While the team joked about whether one of the presenters could partner with the hip-hop star (“Drop It Like It’s Hot”) to make wine, the 51-year-old satirized the musician, mimicking one of his lines: “Fo shizzle, my nice!”
Sounds funny and, roughly translated from hip-hop slang, simply means: “Sure thing, my mate”. However, there is a catch: If you translate the phrase literally, “Nizzle” is a modification of the N-word – the racist term for black people. A word that really should only be used by those who are sure that they don’t mean it in a derogatory way if they want to use it: black people. Which in the music of Snoop Dogg, who is black himself, becomes a problem when a white host uses the term.
In the case of Barbie Bassett, it wasn’t the first faux pas of this kind either. A while ago, she had asked a black reporter about his “grandmammy” – a clichéd term for older black women or grandmothers. The usual term for a grandmother is simply “Grandma” or “Grandmother”. That alone had made black viewers uncomfortable. Now, the second misstep, even if it was a Snoop Dogg quote, appears to have brought her television career to an abrupt end.
In any case, Bassett has not appeared on the news program since the incident. There is silence on their social media channels. And when asked by the media, the broadcaster only gave very diplomatic, evasive answers: “As you can imagine, WLBT cannot talk about personal circumstances,” it said succinctly in response to a request from the “New York Times”. Bassett himself also remained silent. Her name has since been removed from the station’s website.
Sources: “Deadline”, “Independent”
