Actress LisaRaye McCoy is setting the record straight after catching heat for seemingly defending a white radio host’s colorist remarks.
On Friday, April 1, the “Player’s Club” star was the target of an online dragging after she expressed on her show “Cocktails and Queens” that she found nothing wrong with radio host Rob Lederman’s comments comparing prominent Black women to the color of different toast settings. During his tirade to fellow co-hosts, the former “The Morning Bull Show” host said he would never date a woman the skin tone of Serena Williams and that he was more ‘comfortable’ with a Halle Berry type. He later added, “I need a little bit of mulatto still coming through,” when describing the kinds of Black women he preferred.
Over the weekend, TMZ caught up with LisaRaye and questioned the 53-year-old on her support of the broadcaster’s words. The actress claimed that she was not defending Lederman but maintained her previous statement that he was entitled to his own preference.
“I never supported him. I never stood behind. I don’t even know who he is. I don’t even know what show he is,” the actress explained. “You guys are so funny; you will take something and run with it, which is why I actually commented on what he said. I was commenting on his preference to Black women.” LisaRaye explained that her granddaughter is “brown skinned,” and by no means would she want her grandchild to think she was a colorist. Adding, “I know better than that.”
Once again, she reverted to her argument from before when her co-host Syleena Johnson attempted to get her to see the issue in Lederman’s remarks. “We’re in a sensitive time right now, and everybody is either censored or is gonna get decensored with saying what’s really on their mind or saying what they want to say and express it in the way they want to say it. Because we so sensitive to it, but I get it; it’s a bigger conversation,” she continued.
When asked if she could separate a racist from a colorist, LisaRaye explained she didn’t know Lederman well enough to make that judgment. Still, the star said regardless everyone has a preference and even highlighted 50 Cent, who was slammed in 2020 for saying he preferred exotic-looking women that resemble something that “looked like it fell off the boat.” The actress said she understood very well what the rapper meant.
LisaRaye also added that had Lederman been Black, perhaps the situation wouldn’t have been such a “hot topic,” but maintains that she “gets it.”
