Eyebrow shaming: Latina offended that singer Rihanna's skinny brows are cultural appropriation

The New York Times’ Sarah Jeong’s tweets about hating white people really stirred up the conversation about race and racism last week, including just who can be racist, who can’t, and why.

We might as well keep the outrage ball rolling and share this piece from Marie Clarie in which a Latina argues that singer Rihanna culturally appropriated her thin eyebrows on the cover of Vogue from “chola” (female gang member) culture.

Woman thinks Rihanna’s eyebrows are racist: https://t.co/bBJgU8eR2o

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) August 6, 2018

Krystyna Chávez writes:

Considering it was highly unlikely that Rihanna had suddenly joined a gang, and seeing as the Caribbean singer wasn’t exactly raised on the streets of East L.A., my Mexican-American heart was deeply confused, and deeply annoyed.

…

As a minority, I know I’m always one step away from being judged negatively based on how I look. I know that if I stepped out with these brows tomorrow, I would face such intense judgement that would just feed into the negative stereotype many minorities work very hard to avoid. Not all of us have the luxury of drawing on some eyebrows and calling them fashun—even if RiRi does look gorgeous, and even if it’s just an editorial spread meant to look pretty and harmless and inspirational.

Minority or not, stopping people from judging other people based on their looks isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So … racist?

In other news, Rihanna’s eyebrows start their NYTimes column on Thursday. https://t.co/5r5UyOiM8A

— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) August 6, 2018

Nice.

Our institutions of higher learning are failing miserably.

— Antonio Martinez (@djtechchicago) August 6, 2018

Oh please, now someone's eyebrows are offensive? People, this is really truly pathetic. Get a job, get a life, make some real human freinds and stop reacting to every single "made up crisis". If your life sucks, make positive changes and move forward.

— Lori Schneerer (@LSchneerer) August 6, 2018

Here we go, no sense so let’s pull the race card.

— Bill Wolff (@Bill_Wolff_16) August 6, 2018

Why do they even entertain an idea based on a .1% opinion?

— Chelsea Forsaith (@callmemarysue) August 6, 2018

SOOOO weak! I'm Latino I wear khakis, Chuck's, & ButtonUps! I'm not a Cholo or some banger & no one treats me that way anywhere I go! Why? Because I carry myself with Class, Respect, Grace, & Decency!
I don't LIVE UP TO the stereotype.#GetAlifE

— Jason Bustos (@JBustos303) August 6, 2018

Felt my IQ drop by reading this! I’m Mexican. Never have been judged for my looks alone. My skin color? Yes. I’m dark brown. Some people are bothered by my brown-ness but I’m cool with it. Judged for my makeup, clothes, hair, etc? Only once – for having a unibrow. I don’t care!! pic.twitter.com/nLeUrLwRJY

— JJP (@JennaJadePhilli) August 6, 2018

But if Rihanna has her eyebrows like that and she's a positive role model then isn't that better then the current status quo of it being automatically a negative gang stereotype?

— William F. Tell (@MuseSeeking) August 6, 2018

I actually just think it’s ugly but whatever.

— catie lord (@tudsgrl) August 6, 2018

Nah, they are just godawful!

— ViktoriaGál (@ViktoriaCsendes) August 6, 2018

Don’t worry if you don’t like Rihanna’s pencil-thin eyebrows; the unibrow is the next big thing:

This model is making bank thanks to her unbelievable unibrow https://t.co/ZHELHO0WXR pic.twitter.com/cKRk9MuRCa

— New York Post (@nypost) August 3, 2018

Related:

'Fat-shaming' editor of Marie Claire gets an EPIC lesson in trolling from conservatives https://t.co/IebyKWM36b pic.twitter.com/YZn2qVdGbM

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 3, 2016