In Defense of Allure's Loose Afro

The most recent issue of Allure magazine featured a retro hair style section which discussed tresses styling from the 70's. In that feature Allure highlights the Afro. Now this wouldn't have been a problem, in fact this would be a great time for Allure to boost its readership and affirm part of its audience, women of African descent by briefly explain the important cultural understanding of the Afro and encouraging more women to wear their natural textures. 

But Allure didn't do that. Instead, Allure used a white model, 

called the style "the loose Afro" and they said this:

Come on, guys. It's Allure Magazine. Of course they don't care about any of that. What they do care about is fashion and right now, beauty from the black community is now trending and they want to show white women how to achieve the Afro look. 

Never mind the blatant appropriation and open disrespect of a culture that here seems more like a costume. Nope, they are all about the fashion and beauty of the moment. Never mind that this cultural appropriation thing has been an ongoing conversation we've been having for months now since the "mini buns"

Of course, the black community rose in an uproar, the loudest (and most hilarious) voices in this discussion coming from Black Twitter, who had a few things to say:

What does Allure have to say after enraging Black Twitter? 

"The Afro has a rich cultural and aesthetic history. In this story, we show women using different hairstyles as an individual expressions [sic] of style. Using beauty and hair as a form of self-expression is a mirror of what's happening in our country today. The creativity is limitless—and pretty wonderful."

Oh thank you beauty preacher for the sermon. You guys say all of that good sounding stuff, but do you know what Black women hear? "It's just a hairstyle. We know it means something to you guys, but to us it is simply fashion. So please calm down and go make something else for us to steal later down the line."

At this point, after hearing some of the responses and reading the comments left on my favorite sites beneath their responses to the Allure article, I have a few random responses of my own:

-It's called an AFRO (let that sink in) What is Afro short for?

-Poor Allure is too hard up to find any black models who were born with straight hair to show those born with, as you say, straight hair, how to do the style?  It's not like you're a nationally known magazine that models would love to be a part of and have the backing of many agencies that will be willing to send you said models. Poor poor Allure.

-No, it's not just a hair style. No, it's not just hair. It is connected to our social identity. 

-For generations, it was considered socially taboo for women of African descent to even wear our natural textures. In fact, during the times of slavery, it was illegal for a black woman to walk around with her natural hair unwrapped. 

-When women of the 70's wore their natural hair, it wasn't for fashion. It was in direct rebellion to popular society that told them day in and day out that there was only one kind of beautiful, and that beautiful was fair skinned with straight hair. It was a rebellion that said "Yes, I am a woman too and I love my God given texture and I am beautiful too. 

-It's still socially taboo today. I know plenty of black women who have the story of being denied a job or looked over a position or even called unprofessional because they stayed true to their coils, kinks, and curls. 

-The model pictured looks like Rachel Dolezal. 

-Where was your designated black person to tell you that this wasn't cool?

-Why didn't any of you stop and think "Hey maybe this and our BS apology may offend not only an entire ethnicity but other anyone who is hip to the game of cultural appropriation?

-This isn't even an Afro. This is a twist out. You know, that thing that happens when you take out twists or those "mini-buns" (or what we have called for centuries Bantu Knots.) The curls that you get makes the style a twist out. 

-Wait, who still reads Allure?

-We are not a costume. We are not a trend. We are a people with a deep, rich, and powerful history. So stop treating black culture as if it's the newest fad. 

...And at this point, we have had enough. 

You wanted braids like us.

You wanted cornrows like us.

You wanted butts like us.

You wanted skin like us. 

Now you want hair like us. 

And all of this happening during a time where reports of police brutality against African Americans is at an all time high, where every week there is another report of another death of usually unarmed black citizen of this nation. 

It's a very confusing thing when popular culture can see a minor culture's beauty without valuing the people within the minor culture. Basically what it looks like is that popular culture wants to be us while hating us.

Just my thoughts.