According to Cosmopolitan, QVC has come under fire for a segment it recently ran that featured its two hosts making fun of the featured model’s natural hair.
In the video below, you can hear two hosts talking about a specific purse; then, as the camera pans over a model who’s modeling the purse, the anchors start talking about hair. One says, “You might look back and think, ‘Why’d I wear my hair like that?’ but you’ll still like your purse.” The other says, “That’s right. You won’t look at your hair in the picture; you’ll look at your handbag.” But maybe this is just bad timing with the camera angle.
That all may be very true — Bennett and her co-host may have been trying to highlight the “timeless” aspect of the purse by poking fun at the fact that many people often do look back at photos of how they look and cringe (with the implication being that you’d never think that about this particular purse, because it will never go out of style). Everyone on-screen could have just been victim to an unfortunate camera pan, but given the problematic stigma surrounding black and Afro-Latina women and natural hair, and the fact that the comment about hair wasn’t even really necessary to sell the bag, maybe this should serve as a good reminder to everyone to be a little more thoughtful about the things you say before opening your mouth and making a potentially racially insensitive comment.
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What gets me is the model’s reaction to the comment. Check the video at the 40 second mark. Is it possible that they weren’t talking about her? Yes. Regardless, the model didn’t seem like she liked it too much. Sandra Bennett claims in her cover up “apology” that she reached out to Michelle, the model featured. Supposedly Michelle didn’t even remember the comment. I find that hard to believe by the look of her expression change in that video.