What It Means To Protect Black Communities At Work, Even When Your Own Company Messes Up Like We Did

“When I joined the BuzzFeed team, I felt relief. Here was a culture that gave me the space to just be. I finally felt safe at work, and I relaxed. Imagine my surprise when BuzzFeed, my safe haven, published a joke about punching a woman. I understand there’s a knuckle sandwich trend on TikTok, but like… that isn’t even how we utilized the joke, and was it even a joke as a trend? It seems so small, doesn’t it, a knuckle sandwich joke. But there is a HISTORY of being threatened with violence. ALL WOMEN know violence. The joke is bigger than just the joke. It plays right into a culture that we have actively fought against. My trust in my company has faltered, and my safe haven now has a crack. I don’t want us to forget this happened. I don’t want it to be swept under the rug. That’s not who we are at BuzzFeed. I want more apologies. I want groveling. If this is truly a mistake, and we are truly sorry (us employees are!), then we need to do more as a company to convey that to our fans and everyone who trusted and looked up to us as a source of truth and joy. It’s not enough to try to do better in the future. We need to be better right now.”

—BuzzFeed employee