Allure Stupidly Defends Their Stupid Afro Tutorial For White Women

Allure magazine has rightfully been dragged through the mud over the past few days for a hair tutorial in their August issue called, “You (Yes, You) Can Have An Afro,” which instructs white women on how to achieve an “Afro.” Unfortunately for Allure, the tutorial doesn’t begin and end with, “be black.”

That sound you hear is the heavy, deeply exasperated sigh from black women around the world who are sick of this garbage behavior from white people. Because Allure was stupid enough to publish the tutorial in the first place, it is unsurprising that they’re stupid enough to now double down on it in a statement to BuzzFeed. Whiteness is intoxicating.

“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.”

Hey, Allure, fuck off with your idiotic, sanctimonious bullshit. The blatant cultural appropriation is one thing, but the deep ignorance of these clowns is equally offensive. White people cannot have afros. Period. Full stop. Again, if you are not black, it is not possible that the hair on your head can logically be called an afro, no matter how it’s styled.

Really though, why would Allure give a shit? The appropriation of blackness is at an all-time high. The Kardashians have literally built an empire on emulating black women. Rachel Dolezal exists. And even when black women carefully and repeatedly explain why things like this are hurtful and offensive, white people continuing doing it anyway because what do those women know? This is about celebrating your culture. Never mind that many black women would hesitate to wear their natural hair in an afro style on a job interview or to work for fear of their hair being deemed “unprofessional.”

Because I’m so unbelievably sick and tired of stunts like this, I’ll just leave the rest to Paul Mooney.