“Kendall Jenner takes bold braids to a new epic level”
Twitter took Marie Claire to task this week when the magazine tweeted a photo of reality star Kim Kardashian’s younger sister, Kendall Jenner, wearing cornrows and calling them “new” and “epic.”
Here’s the tweet that offended many on “Black Twitter”:
“Kendall Jenner takes bold braids to a new epic level.”
HuffPost Black Voices editor Julee Wilson explained why the seemingly innocent tweet was actually offensive:
“There is nothing ‘new’ about the plaits or anything ‘epic’ about the way Kendall is rocking them. Cornrows have been around for ages and are credited most to the Black community.”
Speaking on HuffPost Live, Wilson went on to explain why the tweet was insensitive:
“It’s just kind of weird to have this fashion magazine say ‘oh look at Kendall Jenner and her epic new braids.’ It’s like, we’ve been doing this, please understand that this is not new, this is not epic, this is not bold, this is just something that has been done and for someone like [Kendall], like a socialite or celebrity to do it, doesn’t mean she invented it.”
Many people on Twitter had the same reaction as Wilson, which resulted in the funny hashtag #epicbraidlevels, which voiced the outrage and concern from members of the Black community.
@ohitsbarbara wrote:
“Why don’t you go to an elementary school with black girls & tell me once again how Kendall Jenner started cornrows as a trend? @marieclaire”
Danielle @Dani_Knope added:
“@ohitsbarbara white people invented cornrows in 2014, y’all. @marieclaire, we melanin-abundant call that ‘I can’t leave the house yet'”
The tweets continued to pour in and forced an apology out of Marie Claire.
Marie Claire tweeted:
“We didn’t mean to offend or imply that cornrows were new. Our tweet was poorly worded.
We thought her hair looked great and recognize women have been styling their hair like this for ages.”
Source: huffingtonpost.com
