E! red carpet host Giuliana Rancic criticized the 18-year-old actress for having her long hair in dreadlocks, saying on “Fashion Police” Monday that: “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil and weed.”
While her co-hosts found the comment funny, Zendaya was far from amused and wrote a long Instagram post saying she was “hit with ignorant slurs and pure disrespect.”
“To say that an 18 year old young woman with locs must smell like patchouli oil and weed is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive,” she wrote, adding that “certain remarks cannot go unchecked.”
Zendaya went on to point out that “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, notable African-American authors, professors and “men, women and children of all races” have locs, “none of which smell of marijuana.”
The actress said she wore her hair in dreadlocks to the Oscars to “remind people of color that our hair is good enough.”
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