I know for a fact that there are black people working at BuzzFeed. Never mind that recently a black BuzzFeed writer totally missed the mark on Jamaican food. But there really are black people at BuzzFeed. I’ve seen them.
One has to wonder why a black writer did not inform the writer of “People Are Shaving Slits Into Their Eyebrows and It Looks Incredible,” that these lines people are shaving into their eyebrows are not called “slits.”
Jay Z didn’t rap about the Lox putting cuts into their eyebrows, trying to wild out, for someone’s website to come along and rename them “slits.”
“Slits have been around the hip-hop scene for decades,” the writer says. Yes, they have. Thank you for acknowledging that, and not going the way of “OMG, These Slits Are a New Trend.”
Then she posts a photo of Soulja Boy.
Want to know what’s older than Soulja Boy? Cuts are older than Soulja Boy. Cuts are even older than Jay Z.
Let’s pay homage to that sexy, chocolate rapper Big Daddy Kane. Look at those “cuts” in his eyebrows.
But of course, what was old is new again. People are now cutting up their eyebrows to make a fashion statement.
And this time you can’t just point the finger at white people, either.
But for the love of everything that is hip-hop culture, do not call them slits.
Calling something that is older than Soulja Boy “slits” is a microaggression and an attempt to rename a cultural legacy that is older than Soulja Boy and all of these newbies doing it.
These are cuts. These are shaved brows. Not slits.
Stop the Columbusing. Thank you.
Oh, and a word of advice to those cutting up their eyebrows: You better pray they grow back in.