Is Clicks SA against Afro hair?

In most recent years, women all over the world have left the creamy crack (relaxer), & decided to embrace their gorgeous waves, curls, coils & kinks. And Africa is no exception. But, with all the progress the natural hair movement has made so far, there are still some people who still don’t understand the beauty in natural hair, particularly type 4 hair.

The problem going as far as brands monopolising on afro hair, giving it a less than status. Clicks SA, is under fire for this very reason, and the natural hair community is outraged by some of the images on their website, which has since been taken down.

Screenshot from Clicks SA’s website.

As can be seen from this image above, the shrunken, afro hair was labeled “dry & damaged”, while the elongated, blond hair was labeled “fine & flat”. This has caused quite an upset to the Twitter community, as most naturals probably opt to buy their products from clicks SA (since clicks has a wide range of natural hair products).

The SA super model, Tshepiso Vanessa Ralehlathe (@Tshepiso_Says), posted the following statement on Twitter, “I’m so tired of brands using our Blackness as a publicity stunt or advertising tool. I’m so tired of educating corporates about Black hair, Black skin, Black lives. This is blatant racism.” Which was a response to the images posted on the Clicks website.

Other comments on Twitter addressed the fact that by the Clicks team approving these images for their website, they were adding fuel the idea that afro hair is “unprofessional” in the corporate world. Some people being so outraged by this fiasco, they began cutting up their clicks cards.

Clicks SA has issued a statement of apology & has taken down the images. But most tweeps felt like the statement of apology given lacked feeling & sincerity. The statement posted by Clicks SA (@Clicks_SA) was, “We have made a mistake and sincerely apologise for letting you down. We recognise we have a role to play in creating a more diverse and inclusive S.A, starting with our website content. We know we need to do better, and commit to ensuring our content better reflects this value.”

Majority of the commenters feel like clicks SA needs to address the larger issue at hand, than to just take down the images & issue a statement of apology. One man had this to say, in response to Clicks’ issued statement of apology, “This is engraved in your organisation structure. The problem is not with the website content controls but your culture. The website is merely a reflection of what’s happening in your organisation.”

The following images were accompanied with this post.

Screenshot from Clicks SA’s website.

Screenshot from Clicks SA’s website.

The question on everyone’s mind, is will Clicks SA take this backlash seriously, or will they just wait for the dust to settle and move on? Only time will tell.