How Zendaya Turned A Racial Comment Into A Positivity Movement!

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Zendaya is doing big things—she’ll be starring in the new Spider-Man movie, but for a few weeks she was personally linked to a racial negativity courtesy of Fashion Police. A few years ago Zendaya took the Oscar red carpet in a Vivienne Westwood frock and long locs (dreadlocs) and was criticized by Giuliana Rancic—she said on the show, “Like, I feel like she smells like patchouli oil. Or weed.” Ouch—but Zendaya took the high road writing a poised and eloquent rebuttal to the harsh hair comment.

“This is way bigger than a beef between us,” Zendaya told Allure. “I heard about the comment through Twitter, and my first reaction was angry—I got really mad. Then I realized this has nothing to do with us. It was one small look into an overall misconception about a large group of people.”

Zendaya stopped herself from sending out an angry tweet and instead picked up a pen and wrote about the prejudice she just encountered. She handed it over to her mom for proofreading and off it went into the internet stratosphere. “I gave it to my mom to proofread—I literally can’t spell to save my life—and that was it.I got all of these pictures from women wearing locs. I made it my Twitter header, and that became empowering. It became something very positive. It allowed us to talk about things that make us uncomfortable.” Rancic later apologized. “There was a little girl for Halloween last year that was me from the Oscar. I think that was a big moment not just for me but for women of color. It’s a step in the right direction. But we have a long way to go.”

Photo from PR Photos