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lisaraye colorist

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In the aftermath of being dragged for her seeming defense of the white male radio host who distastefully compared the various complexions of famous Black women to toast, actress and Cocktails With Queens host LisaRaye McCoy recently clarified her stance on the radio host’s inappropriate comments.

If you recall, New York-based radio host Rob Lederman made headlines around a week and a half ago when he shared on 97 Rock’s The Morning Bull Show that his scale of attractiveness for Black women was comparable to the doneness settings one would find on a toaster. As you can imagine, he was subsequently fired after the clip of his problematic comments went viral.

“I will never go to a Serena Williams level,” Lederman told his co-hosts on his lack of desire for the tennis champion based on her skin tone. “But I’m very comfortable with a Halle Berry level… I need a little bit of mulatto still coming through.”

When discussing the host’s comments on Cocktails With Queens, McCoy’s views on what Lederman said didn’t go over well to say the least. As we reported last week, McCoy said that what she heard of Lederman’s comments “was an opinion,” and that she didn’t see the problem in him sharing that he liked women of Halle Berry’s complexion as opposed to those of a darker skin tone. While explaining her stance on his comments to her co-hosts, she asked them, “You don’t got a preference? How [do] you say it? ‘I like mocha chocolate opposed to cappuccino?'”

Despite Syleena Johnson — one of the other Cocktails with Queens ladies — trying to explain to McCoy that Lederman’s comments were racist and colorist because he specified an interest in “mulattos” and highlighted Halle Berry — who is a mixed-race Black woman — McCoy said that she just thought people were too sensitive these days.

“I don’t know. I’m not there with it,” she told her co-hosts. “I just think that we’re so sensitive now. Everybody gonna get caught up now because I think everybody is gon’ be so sensitive and ain’t gon’ know what to say and how to say it and it’s going to take the fun out of everything and everybody gon’ get slapped with lawsuits and defamation and it’s gon’ to be tedious and ain’t nobody gonna be able to talk about nothin.”

Now, in the latest update, McCoy spoke with TMZ and tried to clarify her comments on what Lederman had said. According to her, while she emphasized not being able to support anyone who was a racist, she noted that she too has preferences.

“I was commenting on his preference to Black women, that’s what I was talking about,” McCoy told the outlet. “You know, my grandbaby is brown-skinned, so by no means would I want my grandbaby to think her grandmother is a colorist.”

“I know what my preference is,” she continued in a later clip. “And I can’t stand by someone that doesn’t — that’s a racist — and I don’t know that about them. I can’t even comment on that, I don’t even know.”

Clearly, McCoy wasn’t feeling all the backlash she received for her thoughts on Lederman’s situation and she felt the need to rework what she said. Do you think she’s backtracking or do you think her point of view was honestly misunderstood?

See the clips of what she had to say down below.

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