As many photos as Kim has uploaded to social media, Kardashian-West family photos are shockingly rare. And there might be more to that than privacy concerns.
Kim posted an adorable photo of her daughter and husband, but mom-shames came out of the woodwork to blast Kim over it.
Why? Because they think that Kim is ruining North’s hair. And some think she’s doing it on purpose … due to racism.
The photo shows North West, adorable and tiny, giving her father, Kanye, a kiss on his cheek.
Kanye is smiling, clearly overwhelmed with love for his daughter.
“I can still feel the love,” Kim Kardashian captioned this sweet pic.
But a number of people, both on Instagram and on Twitter, were hung up on one little detail in this image.
North West’s hair is straightened.
After Kim tweeted the photo, someone decided to offer her some unsolicited advice.
“Don’t straighten her hair too much it’ll ruin her curls,” a total stranger implored Kim. “I did that to my hair and ruined it but I’m finally getting my natural curly hair back.”
Amazingly, rather than ignore that absolutely unsolicited instruction on how to manage her daughter’s hair, Kim replied.
“She is allowed twice a year, on her birthday and birthday party!” Kim answered. “This pic was taken back in June on her bday.”
So that explains it. And we all saw North with her hair straghtened when she and Penelope celebrated their birthdays.
Unfortunately, that person’s unsolicited advice was one of the nicer bits of mom-shaming feedback that Kim received.
Within the Instagram comments, someone had the audacity to suggest that Kim had forced North to straighten her hair … because Kim longed to have a white daughter.
Fortunately, Kim didn’t have to deliver the verbal smackdown that this person so richly deserved. She has so many other followers to do this.
“So you think just bc she straightened her daughter’s hair that means she wanted a white kid?” someone replied to that comment. “Maybe north just want to try something different and ask her mom.”
As Kim said, North is only allowed to do this twice a year in order to protect the integrity of her hair.
Back in June, when Kim shared photos of North’s party, there was similar discourse.
Troll openly accused Kim of straightening North West’s hair to make her look white.
For context, we should remember that black people’s hair has been policed — sometimes literally — within the United States for centuries, and that continues to this day.
Hairstyles featuring black hair in its natural curls are sometimes labeled as “eccentric” and “unprofessional” by society and by employers.
(Unless, of course, they’re being appropriated by a beautiful white celebrity like Kim Kardashian or Zac Efron, in which case they’re daring and trendy)
So many black women wear wigs, extensions, or use straighteners in order to conform to beauty standards that originate in white supremacy. So, yes, hair matters.
But Kim is not forcing North to keep her hair straight. It’s a special treat that happens only twice a year.
North loves her long, curly hair, and gets excited when she sees other girls with similar hair because she knows that it’s special.
If Kim had wanted a white daughter, she could have had a baby with, well, any of tens of millions of white dudes who would have been down to try until that happened.
Kim is in love with Kanye (despite his, um, issues), and she does her best to tackles the special challenges involved with having biracial children.
It would be nice if trolls on social media could be a little less vile. But … we won’t hold our breath.
