Kendall Jenner's hairstyle for 'Vogue' photo called 'offensive' and cultural appropriation

Sporting a cream floral dress and with her hair styled in what looks like an Afro for a “Vogue” photo shoot, supermodel Kendall Jenner has once again found herself at the center of a heated debate on cultural appropriation and insensitivity.

While the image was meant to mark the 15th anniversary of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which celebrates “a true sense of community among designers of all ages and backgrounds,” it was instead met with swift criticism of Jenner’s “offensive” hairstyle as yet another instance of cultural appropriation.

“African-Americans didn’t have a choice of sharing with the world our culture; we were exploited. Native-Americans didn’t have a choice of sharing their culture, it was stolen. Every time you partake in something that originated in said culture you’re dealing in essentially stolen goods,” said one Twitter user.

Critics argue that Jenner, whose hair is naturally straight, should not be modeling an Afro-centric hairstyle, especially when there are black models who proudly wear their natural curls. Ironically in another image from the same photo shoot, the 22-year-old is perched next to Imaan Hammam, a model of Moroccan and Egyptian descent, whose naturally curly hair was straightened for the shoot.

“Stop doing this Vogue, it’s getting ridiculous. Hire a model with natural Afro hair,” said one Instagram user.

Black women online were quick to point out the irony of the photo and the double standard to which black women are held and pressured to straighten their natural curls, particularly in the professional world.

“As a black teen growing up in America, this was absolutely hurtful to look at, people keep bringing up that black women wear weaves that are straight. Yeah we wear them because America poisoned black culture with the idea that we need relaxers and to be accepted our hair had to be straight,” one woman wrote.

Vogue has since released an apology for the shoot styled by Tonne Goodman, saying the hair was meant to be inspired by the “Edwardian/Gibson Girl hair” and the “puffed out and teased out hair of the ’60s and early ’70s,” suited to the Brock clothing collection. “We apologize if it came across differently than intended, and we certainly did not mean to offend anyone by it,” the statement read.

This wouldn’t be the first time the 22-year-old has been accused of racial insensitivity. In a 2017 ad for Pepsi, Jenner resolved tension between police officers and protesters by offering an officer the advertisement’s olive-branch-equivalent: a can of soda. Pepsi later apologized for the campaign after receiving backlash for undermining the issues of grassroots movements like #BlackLivesMatter. The same year, Jenner was also slammed for starring on the “Vogue” India cover to celebrate the magazine’s 10 year anniversary instead of an Indian woman.

The model at the center of the controversy has made no comment so far.

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