- A Buffalo, New York,
radio host was fired after he compared various Black women's skin to burnt toast. - Rob Lederman said he would never eat "a
Serena Williams level toast." - An ESPN journalist said Lederman's comments reinforced an "unfortunate and undeserved stigma attached to dark skin."
A Buffalo, New York, radio DJ has been fired after he rated the color of toast according to the skin tones of various Black women.
Rob Lederman, one of the hosts of 97 Rock, told his co-hosts Rich "Bull" Gaenzler and Chris Klein on the station's Morning Bull Show that said he set his toaster's toast level to the skin color "of the attractiveness of women I would find attractive."
When one of his co-hosts asked how toasted he typically liked his bread, Lederman replied: "I would never go with a Serena Williams level, but I'm very comfortable at a
"I need a little bit of mulatto still coming through," he continued.
His co-host Klein then asked whether Gayle King was "in his realm."
"Gayle King is not even on my toaster level," Lederman replied.
After a tweet about the incident from ESPN reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques went viral, the city's Roswell Park Cancer Institute pulled their advertising.
-Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) March 24, 2021
Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the owner of the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, also fired Gaenzler from his role as an arena host, according to The Grio.
Gaenzler and Klein were put on suspension by 97 Rock, according to Radio.com.
In a follow-up Tweet, Louis-Jacques said: "There's already an unfortunate and undeserved stigma attached to dark skin - so for Rob to take something undesirable like burnt toast and compare it to the skin color of any person is reprehensible and feeds into that stigma."
The station removed audio of the show from its website though it is still up on Twitter. Cumulus Media, the owner of the station, has since issued an apology.
"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. We swiftly terminated him and suspended the remainder of the show's on-air talent," it said in a statement to WBEN. "We apologize and deeply regret the incident."