Two journalists set 2020 off to a fiery and controversial start when they commented on the appearance of Beyoncé and Jay Z’s daughter Blue Ivy in a negative way. The comments quickly picked up steam on social media—and found the two journalists having to apologize.
Vanity Fair writer K. Austin Collins and Harper’s web editor Violet Lucca, set off a firestorm of controversy when they engaged in a Twitter chat that involved derogatory comments about the physical appearance of 7-year-old Blue Ivy Carter. The conversation surrounded Collins’ and Lucca’s opinion that Blue is not attractive because she looks very similar to her father—and also that she is an “ugly duckling.”
Their twitter exchange went like this. Collins initially tweeted, “I have a feeling the Jay Z face genes are about to really hit Blue Ivy and I feel so sorry for her.” Lucca responded with, “They haven’t already?” Which Collins then elaborated, “You’re right. But she’s lucky—if it happens now she’ll definitely grow out of it. Get the ugly duckling phase done early. That’s when Lucca brought Kylie Jenner into the conversation, writing “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!”
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Those tweets went viral in no time and inspired both Collins and Lucca to address their comments and offer up an apology—and also delete the tweets in question.
Collins wrote this following the backlash:
“I’m sorry about the Blue Ivy tweet—bad joke, and black girls in particular deserve better.”
Meanwhile Lucca posted this:
“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.”
Many social media users pointed out that the timing of the incident mirrors the issues that Ari Lennox recently addressed on social media regarding being called a “Rottweiler” on Twitter.
Roommates, what are your thoughts on this?
