BBC removes article which claimed bare fingernails trend is 'racist and classist'

Published: 12:34 EDT, 30 September 2026 | Updated: 12:34 EDT, 30 September 2026 A BBC article about how a viral manicure trend is ‘rooted in white supremacy’ has been permanently removed from its website after it broke editorial standards.In the story, a salon owner was interviewed about how her customers are increasingly asking for 'bare-looking' fake nails.Paloma Buddemeier, who runs Wumman Spa in central London, told the Corporation the demand stems from a 'viral trend' on social media, which is symbolic of 'quiet luxury'.The article, which first ran on the BBC’s website on September 27, also covered criticisms of the trend, which suggested it could ‘stigmatise’ bolder designs rooted in ‘black, Latino and Asian communities’.One section, quoting beauty journalist Kristina Rodulfo, said: ‘That trend really promotes blankness - and this kind of sameness and erasure of culture and identity that is so important to black and brown communities.‘They are often called elegant or tasteful, and these are usually euphemisms that perpetuate white supremacist standards of beauty.‘The examples are almost always white women or celebrities … [and] they’ll often conflate class and taste with that bareness.’The BBC initially removed the article from its website on Tuesday, ‘pending an editorial review’, after it sparked backlash online and even in US media. The article, which linked bare-looking nails to white supremacy, was labelled 'divisive tosh'Writing on X, former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies branded the story ‘divisive tosh’, and said it was ‘sadly very reflective of today's BBC'.Choreographer Rosie Kay wrote: 'This is beyond utterly insane. Stop right now. You're a disgrace.'Meanwhile, opera historian Alexandra Wilson said: 'The politicisation of absolutely everything is becoming deeply tedious. We used to be a sane country.She added: 'It demeans the BBC to be reporting as "news" that going without nail varnish is (apparently) classist and racist.'And in the US, a Wall Street Journal piece branded the article ‘embarrassingly retrograde’.The Corporation has since confirmed that the story was permanently removed from the site last night, after it failed to include any challenge to the quote linking bare nails to white supremacy.On its corrections and clarifications register, the BBC said: ‘This article examined the trend of bare nails and what might be motivating it, hearing from a range of contributors as well as looking at the cultural significance of manicures. It was removed on 29 September pending an editorial review.‘Following this review the article was permanently removed on the same day because it reported criticism of the bare nails trend without sufficient context or challenge and so did not meet our editorial standards.’The BBC has been plagued with editorial rows in recent months. It is still the subject of legal action from US President Donald Trump over the way an episode of Panorama edited together two parts of a speech.And last year, the Corporation was slammed over its failure to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official.The BBC was approached for comment.