Racist comments trigger another firing for Rochester, N.Y., radio duo

Disclaimer: People in this story are quoted in their attempt to use an abbreviated version of a racial slur; they did not use the slur, itself.

A Rochester, N.Y., radio duo with a history of bigoted on-air comments were fired Wednesday over an exchange in which they advocated for the use of a racial slur.

Kimberly Ray and Barry Beck, hosts of the “Kimberly and Beck” show, were discussing an assault over the weekend of a white Rochester woman by several black men. The victim told Spectrum News she doesn’t think the men are part of the Black Lives Matter movement spurred by the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Video of that incident shows several men attacking — at least one of them with a wooden plank — an apartment tenant who says she came outside to defend a business connected to the building in which she and her husband live. Both suffered injuries, she said.

It was part of “a graphic glimpse at the chaos that gripped Rochester in the hours after a long and peaceful Black Lives Matter protest ended Saturday afternoon,” according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

Ray and Beck were apparently discussing the contention by some people that a racial slur might have been used that prompted the attack, as reported by WHAM in Rochester.

“OK let me ask you a question. Were they acting… N-wordish? There’s your question,” Ray says.

“They were acting thugerly-like, I think,” Beck says.

“Were they acting… N-wordly?” Ray responds.

iHeartMedia & Radio 95.1 made the decision to terminate Kimberly and Beck yesterday as soon as we learned of their comments. We will not tolerate this kind of behavior, which is antithetical to our core values and beliefs and to our commitment to our community and everyone in it.

— iHeartRadio (@iHeartRadio) June 3, 2020

Another person on the air who isn’t identified can be heard telling the pair, “You can’t say that! What are you doing?

“You can’t say that. Also stop saying thugs. That’s part of the problem,” he says.

Ray and Beck complain in the segment that it’s a “double standard” for black people to be able to use the racial slur while it’s considered forbidden for white people.

“They’re thugs! They’re thugs! If you look like a thug and you act like a thug, and you’ve got three-on-one and beating up a white woman with a two-by-four, by God you’re a thug,” Beck says.

Ray interjects, “And by the way, there are people in the black community would say they are acting N-wordly.”

The unidentified person tells them, “You don’t understand the meaning of that.”

They insist they do.

“I’m going to apologize to anyone offended by that right now,” the unidentified person says.

“No one’s offended,” Beck insists.

Oh wow I’m so shocked Kimberly and Beck said something racist. They haven’t done that in a couple days

— Dan Dailor (@DDailorr) June 3, 2020

The pair has been in trouble before, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports.

They were fired by another Rochester station in 2014 for mocking an area transgender high school student and sued for slander in another incident.

Rashad Smith of the Rochester Association of Black Journalists said the firing is a first step, WHEC in Rochester reported.

“Angered, outraged, deplorable,” Smith said.

“The conversation changed to okay that’s fine,” he said. “Folks were satisfied with the firing. But we know that the fight continues, and so I think the biggest concern for us is if they were able to make that comment on air, imagine what’s being said in the break room.”