White News Anchor Fired for Quoting Snoop Dogg On-Air Claims Racial Discrimination, Arguing a Black Employee Wouldn’t Have Been Fired

news.law March 5, 2026

A white news anchor who was fired for quoting rapper Snoop Dogg’s catchphrase “fo shizzle, my nizzle” on air asked a Fifth Circuit panel Monday to revive her racial discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.

Barbie Bassett had been working for WLBT, an NBC-affiliated station based in Jackson, Mississippi, for more than 20 years. In 2023, while covering a story about a new wine that Snoop Dogg was selling, Bassett quoted the Black rapper’s famous tagline. After the station received complaints from both viewers and other station employees, WLBT made the decision to fire Bassett, determining that the phrase “fo shizzle, my nizzle” contained a version of the N-word and that it was inappropriate for Bassett to say on air.