Kendall Jenner accused of cultural appropriation after wearing an 'afro'
24 October 2018, 11:19 | Updated: 6 October 2020, 10:53
Vogue has apologised for any offence caused.
Kendall Jenner is in trouble... again. The supermodel sported an afro for the November issue of Vogue magazine to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Problematic, much?
The shoot, which was posted to Instagram, received a lot of hate and both the magazine and Kendall were accused of cultural appropriation.
One Instagram user wrote: "Tone deaf. Not buying this magazine anymore." Another commented: "DELETE THIS." And a third demanded: "Take it down."
Kendall Jenner’s latest controversy 😬
— Beauty Queen in tears... (@Moosa_Kaula) October 23, 2018
I swear babygirl enjoys pissing black peoples off.
I can’t even wait for her half baked apology on why she wore afro hair for this shoot. pic.twitter.com/6oZqZYG9sM
Instead of hiring a model with an Afro @voguemagazine decided to make Kendall Jenner a “make shift” Afro. People are calling them out on Cultural Appropriation. What y’all think ? #voguemagazine #KendallJenner pic.twitter.com/Bz4R3VJjUF
— MissBulll (@Reneecbull) October 22, 2018
However, some people did leap to defend the model, with one user writing: "This looks more like a Victorian/Edwardian era aesthetic rather than a type 4 hair afro. It's white European culture for a white magazine with a white model. Some of you can't be serious..." Another agreed, writing: "Nothing is wrong or racist with this image, it’s clearly back-combed hair."
Nonetheless, Vogue issued an apology for the hairstyle in a statement to E News, which read: "The image is meant to be an update of the romantic Edwardian/Gibson Girl hair which suits the period feel of the Brock Collection, and also the big hair of the '60s and the early '70s, that puffed-out, teased-out look of those eras. We apologise if it came across differently than intended, and we certainly did not mean to offend anyone by it."
I think people are reaching
— Nat Edward-Yesufu (@swittp) October 24, 2018
Kendall Jenner’s hair looks more like a bad 80s perm than an Afro tbh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Anthony 🎃 (@AdotHam97) October 23, 2018
Kendall (and her sisters) are no stranger to fan backlash.
Back in 2017, Kenny went into hiding after her advert for Pepsi was pulled for offending a lotttt of people. The short clip, which showed Kendall solving unrest just by flicking open a can of Pepsi, was accused of exploiting the #BlackLivesMatter protests.
Will she ever learn?