Kendall Jenner, reality TV star and supermodel, is facing backlash online for wearing cornrows (or canerows if you’re from the Caribbean) in some of the pictures from her holiday to Jamaica with Hailey Baldwin and Justine Skye.
A series of Instagram Stories images and videos as well as paparazzi images revealed Jenner’s hairstyle, which was cornrowed in the front and out at the back.
The whole thing was just a little too close to that episode of Friends when Monica gets her hair braided with shells, which would not be looked on too kindly if it aired today.
So it’s no surprise that there was an outcry on social media, and the comments were pretty savage.
So, why is there always a backlash when a white celebrity wears cornrows, braids or dreadlocks? Let's break it down...
When black people wear these hairstyles we get discriminated against, or told we’re unprofessional and even excluded from school. But when white people do it, it’s high fashion. See: Marc Jacobs sending models down the runway in dreadlocks.
There’s often no appreciation shown for the origin of the hairstyle; it’s presented as something new and trendy, without proper attribution. See: Kim Kardashian’s Bo Derek braids.
Many see cultural appropriation by celebrities as profiting from black culture (from music to beauty to fashion) and taking the ‘trendy’ elements, making money from them, and then moving on to the next thing without any real understanding of black culture and the significance of the hairstyles. For more on this see our interview with 'Don't Touch My Hair' author Emma Dabiri: From Blue Ivy To Kim Kardashian's Braids, Here's Why Black Hair Will Never Be 'Just Hair'.