Alyssa Milano has earned herself an Internet’s worth of side-eye for flaunting a brand-new cornrow hairstyle, with Twitter users focusing on the reactions of people in the background when she first posed for the picture.
Granted, they’re onto something.
These people don’t look very happy:
She’s also having a bad time:
Twitter took rueful note, of course:
@Phil_Lewis_ @HITOKIRl The amount of disgust on their faces is unmatched by anything I've seen in all of my existence
— Nathanael Nate lll (@TheOne_AboveYou) February 4, 2017
@Phil_Lewis_ pic.twitter.com/I6JUA877sg
— AlternativeBlack?? (@Honey_Bee2) February 4, 2017
But Alyssa isn’t having the people not having it, as evidenced by these Twitter exchanges:
@rosandyreel I'm so sorry you feel this way. I celebrate all cultures and styles. With pride.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) February 5, 2017
@rosandyreel I understand. And I try daily to be as compassionate of a human as humanly possible. I'm on your side. Always.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) February 5, 2017
Well, this was supposed to be a lighthearted post, but now we feel bad and are going to have to lie down.
Maybe just unfollow me? I'm so sorry you feel the need to be hurtful. Be well and God bless you and yours. https://t.co/LqktFA2cMq
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) February 8, 2017
h/t: Huffington Post
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Why is this here? Seriously. Jesus this site is going full Buzzfeed cancer
Jack Meoff
Are people giving her these looks because of cultural appropriation or because she just looks so ridiculous?
CaliKyle
The latter, most likely. No one gets in Beyonce’s way when she wears blonde hair extensions or when Nikki Minaj dons blue eye contacts. The black chick tweeting at Alyssa accuses her of wearing a costume because cornrows. Ridiculous. And totally hypocritical if she doesnt accuse WOC who “appropriate” from caucasians of the exact same thing.
Gusteau
This is cultural appropriation? No, it’s just a ridiculous look that very, very few can pull off, regardless of the skin colour. Blacks mostly look as bad as Whites as Asian etc.
Invader7
Alyssa: Your style is a messed up…
Invader7
cluster phuck….
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
It’s a stupid hairdo for anyone but if blacks don’t like it they need to give back all the white stuff they enjoy daily like indoor plumbing, electricity, houses, pants, long flowing hair etc. Keep it real or shut up about what white people do cause you are neck deep in white culture daily.
kityglitr
I’ll let someone more well spoken than myself explain why cultural appropriation doesn’t work both ways…
http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/poc-cant-appropriate-white-culture/
startenout
And your ignorant self can do without refigerators, clothes dryers, light bulbs (since we created the filament that made them work), gas heat, home security systems, pacemakers and traffic lamps, etc., etc. to name but a few.
Don’t act like ANYONE needs to be grateful to you for the slave trade and centuries of oppression and roll over while dominant white culture takes what it wants from ALL minority cultures and especially blacks, renames it from Rock and Roll to box braids and acts like they’ve “discovered” something.
Y’all would literally be in the dark without us.
Sluggo2007
@startenout – I would prefer to be in the dark. So, why don’t you go back where you came from?
Gusteau
@kityglitr: The writer makes a lot of assumptions why something can’t be without ever precisely or concisely explaining why that’s how it supposedly is. Honestly, it sounded more like those incredibly inane “exposé” that tried to explain “reverse racism” (dumb word combination on its own) and why you can’t be racist towards white people. So no, he or she did not explain anything, and it was far from well spoken. Yes, i can see the irony myself, no need in pointing it out.
Ferdinand Adler
Here’s what you have when you start defending that there are no sexual preferences but it’s all about racism, that white gay cisgender men are the worst for perpetuating the patriarchy amidst the LGBTQ community, that there exist 1,234 genders, that a film about Stonewall is basically sh***t because it doesn’t depict the black transgender women as the very first rioters –instead of white gay cisgender men, once again– and so on and so forth… Now we’re being told about that “cultural appropriation” thing. What’s next? I bet BuzzFeed guys whining about being interracial or even worse: BuzzFeed guys whining about “passing” as white when they’re interracial and complaining that people can’t realize their complete descent at first glance and how it is disturbing living like that.
Mykey
Get off your high horses, people, she looks good and should be proud of herself! Good on you Alyssa, and the way you answered your detractors on twitter was on point!
Gusteau
She does look good, but I’m not a fan of that hairstyle and don’t think it fits her. But she didn’t ask for my opinion anyway 😛
Xzamilloh
I’m sorry, but no one owns a hairstyle… it’s your hair to do with whatever you want.
startenout
I mean their actual point is that a lot of people take thing like cornrows and box braids and Mohawks and act like using them is something trendy and new that they’ve “discovered” and brought the world when it isn’t something that has long existed in the world and that black women have been chastised and castigated for in the past.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@startenout: “act like using them is sometthing[…]new that they’ve “discovered” and brought the world””
Bullshit. Petty minded inconsequential childish bullshit. You’re projecting. Grow up.
mj7417
Glad to see she handled her haters with class. It’s a rarity these days, especially on social media.
Neonegro
This is her hair to wear anyway she wants.
Blacks and black americans especially are so ridiculous with this inferiority complex.
They can straighten their hair to hide their kinky negritude, or grease their hair to make it straight.
Yet a Mediterranean woman like Milano cannot braid her hair in a style that goes back to ancient Egypt, also a Mediterranean people of a darker shade.
In addition, todays black women can’t even wear the style without buying hair extensions, mostly imported from Caucasian India.
So give it a rest.
startenout
You’re just as ignorant of black culture as anyone. Go ahead, panderer. Maybe they’ll let you live in the big house. LOL
DarkZephyr
Except startenout, he is correct about the origin of the hairstyle. Started with Egyptians and Greeks.
Neonegro
Actually starenout, you are the one ignorant of not just black culture but all cultures.
I am not some black version of white people as most blacks in the US are.
I am from a real black country with real black African culture, so believe me when I tell you; You are way out of your league.
The good news is that by 2035 it is projected that Nigeria alone will have a population of 400 million real negros…and black Africa as a whole will explode in population.
At the same time the black percentage in the US will continue to decrease due to the massive Hispanic invasion….and thru local blacks diluting their blood by mixing with other races.
Finally real blackness will be the black voice heard around the globe. Not the ever ending whining of western blacks.
Get over that slavery thing, you are now enjoying the benefits.
DarkZephyr
Neonegro, hold up now. Black Americans aren’t “black versions of white people”. They are black versions of *Americans*. Just as white Americans are white versions of Americans. The implication of your words is that “American” and “white” are synonymous and a black American that behaves as an American is somehow emulating white people. That isn’t true, even if that might be what White Supremacists falsely think.
Neonegro
DarkZephyr, What do you mean by “American”???
American civilization is a continuation of White European civilization.
The native Indians did not create a country/society name United States of America, the white Europeans did.
The imported African slaves adopted the European culture in their own manner. Their names, their religion, their language, their way of dressing are all derivative of white European culture.
That is not white supremacy, that is easily verifiable historical facts.
startenout
She looks marvelous! I am glad that she had an actual conversation with people. She wasn’t stealing or renaming or claiming it as her own; she just got her hair done. And it’s just hair.
Sluggo2007
Why don’t you just shut up? All that screeching and you still haven’t proved your point. That’s because you don’t have one. It’s not the world’s fault that you hate yourself.
Josh447
The picture sucks. It leaves the hairdo out. What corn rows. What hair style at all.
He BGB
I think of that hairstyle as more “prisoninmate” than African American because after a stay in prison women (and men?) show up in court with that exact hair.
lauraspencer
Alyssa is and has always been a class act.
Did Bo Derek get attacked when she wore her hair this was in the 80s and became a sex symbol? No.
Isn’t being American about sharing and melting together when it comes to foods, fashion, styles from all different cultures?
If women of color are up in arms because Alyssa chose to wear her hair a certain way then how do they feel about the Kardashian crew and how they all date black men?
Jack Meoff
Bo Derek didn’t get attacked because her corn rows looked good. I can’t help but think that the looks on those peoples faces is not because she chose to wear corn rows but rather because she wore them so badly, As for the feigned outrage of some of the women of colour on twitter well that was bound to happen because keyboard warriors.
Blackceo
Those people’s faces are hilarious. No. No one owns a hairstyle. The only time this stuff pisses me off is when some White girl like Kylie or Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid throws some cornrows or braids up in their hair and mainstream entertainment shows deem it “trendy”, as if it had never been done before. Other than that, I think the comments are ridiculous. However, the look on the people’s faces are HI-larious!!!!
Desert Eagle
Christ! I wish my worst gripe in life was someone “stealing” my culture.