We're barely in the new year, and a major faux pas is already garnering attention.
K. Austin Collins, a Vanity Fair critic, ridiculed 7-year-old Blue Ivy Carter for looking like her father, Jay-Z.
"I have a feeling the jay z face genes are about to really hit Blue Ivy and I feel so sorry for her,” Collins stated in a now-deleted tweet posted earlier this week.
In case anyone is confused about why people are upset @melvillmatic insults Blue Ivy (a child!) & then @unbuttonmyeyes replies with a crack about plastic surgery. Now he works for @VanityFair & she works @Harpers in case you ever wondered about media influence & misogynoir pic.twitter.com/RqwTPWVvpX
— ❄Mikki Kendall❄ (@Karnythia) January 1, 2020
Harper's Magazine Editor Violet Lucca then chimed in by stating, "Or she'll just get plastic surgery at 16 a la Kylie Jenner and we'll all have to pretend that she always looked that way…I can't allow myself to feel too sorry for the incredibly rich!" reports Hot New Hip Hop.
The image under such criticism is one rapper Megan Thee Stallion posted on New Year's Day to her Instagram and Twitter accounts.
After enduring the fury of the dismayed public, Collins and Lucca temporarily made their Twitter accounts private and then issued apologies.
I’m sorry about the Blue Ivy tweet — bad joke, and black girls in particular deserve better.
— k austin collins (@melvillmatic) January 2, 2020
"Sorry I was cleaning my apartment while this blew up…children of famous ought to be off-limits, but time and again they haven’t been. So I said something petty and have been called ugly, old, and a racist," Lucca responded.
Sorry I was cleaning my apartment while this blew up…children of famous ought to be off limits, but time and again they haven’t been. So I said something petty and have been called ugly, old, and a racist.
— Violet Lucca (@unbuttonmyeyes) January 1, 2020
Despite an attempt to right their wrongs, the public is not having it and expressed such sentiments.
"These are not children being rude. @melvillmatic & @unbuttonmyeyes are two full grown adults in positions of cultural influence who decided that they wanted to start the year by attacking a child. Later, when the mealy mouthed apologies come, I want you to think about this choice,” author Mikki Kendall later tweeted.
"I’m really trying to figure out what’s wrong with Blue Ivy inheriting her daddy’s features, do y’all not know how genetics work or? Also, Jay Z is not ugly at all, can y’all please point to me the exact features that are 'ugly?'" another Twitter user added.
The offense to Blue Ivy stings because her age isn't enough of a deterrent to cease hurtful criticism. In 2014, Jasmine Toliver had the audacity to get on her computer and actually form a petition titled "Comb Her Hair." Wildly enough, the petition garnered a full 5,718 signatures.
Understandably, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have chosen not to publicly give attention to the matter.
