Serena Williams: Sports Radio Host Fired for Racist Comment About Tennis Star

A sports radio host was fired on Wednesday after making a racist remark about Serena Williams and two other famous Black women during a broadcast. Rod Lederman, who was the co-host of the Morning Bull show on 97 Rock in Buffalo, New York, compared toast setting to the skin tones of Willams, actor Halle Berry and journalist Gayle King. Marcel Louis-Jacques, the Buffalo Bills reporter from ESPN, tweeted out a clip of the audio, which led to outrage on social media.

“I have them to the attractiveness of women that I find to be attractive,” Lederman said. “I will never go to a Serena Williams level. But I’m very comfortable with a Halle Berry level. I need a little bit of mulatto still coming through. Lederman was then asked if he liked some like King. “No Gayle King is not even on my toaster level,” Lederman replied.” Along with firing Lederman, Cumulus Media suspended the two other co-hosts on the show, Chris Klein, Rich “Bull” Gaenzler.

“Cumulus Media operates from a clearly-defined set of programming principles and there is no question that Rob Lederman’s comments made on The Morning Bull Show are in direct violation of those principles,” the company said in a statement. “We swiftly terminated him and suspended the remainder of the show’s on-air talent. We apologize, and deeply regret the incident.”

Many people went to social media to share their thoughts on the incident. “I’m embarrassed that that audio made me tear up,” Jhas Williams, a reporter for WIVB in Buffalo wrote on Twitter. “I really should be used to racism by now. But I would genuinely love for [Morning Bull 97] to explain to me if I am also “too dark” since they feel comfortable comparing Black women to burnt toast & deciding which of us is attractive.”

“Not sure what’s worse…the lack of awareness and casual use of a derogatory racial categorization, ‘mulatto,’” former NFL player Jeremy Kelly wrote, “or the background laughter and acceptance when he made a correlation between black skin and burnt toast. Someone educate him/them, and remove them from the studio.”