There's no reason to get mad, upset, frustrated or insulted or write 1,000-word think pieces explaining cultural appropriation. Nope, black Twitter went through all of those stages before when mainstream outlets said that Timbs, cornrows, collard greens and full lips were "new" trends.
Nope, now black Twitter just relies on snark, humor and sarcasm to make its point. The latest demonstration of that is the #CosmoHeadlines that are currently all over Twitter. Cosmopolitan magazine recently put up a tweet declaring "hair tattoos" the "next beauty trend," with a photo of zigzag parts that were shaved into the back of a young white girl's hair.
Man, if somebody don't page Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, Nas—hell, my Daddy and any other black man (circa 1993) who got curves, half-moons and zigzag parts shaved into their funky-fly shape-ups back in the day.
And we can't forget about the ladies. Salt 'N' Pepa's side swoops featured these "hair tattoos," too. Cosmopolitan took the tweet down, but that didn't stop folks on Twitter from coming up with creative #CosmoHeadlines to playfully mock the outlet for its cultural-appropriation faux pas. Check them out below.
https://twitter.com/frazierapproves/status/697845681546010624https://twitter.com/cassirenee_/status/697843441213054976https://twitter.com/tyelerdurden/status/697841973256970240https://twitter.com/ChocnessMonsta/status/697865243792273409https://twitter.com/KAYbeginskiss/status/697853290797789184https://twitter.com/iamlaurenp/status/697841644775809024https://twitter.com/deppsharry/status/697862444853506048https://twitter.com/sporker_/status/697848300599382016https://twitter.com/JoshSeaYouAreD/status/697848856503947264
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.