One Direction singer in a headdress

Harry Styles sparks 'racism' row after posing in Native American headdress--and his critics were his own FANS

By Lucy Buckland1D's Harry Styles sparked a racism row after posing in a Native American headdress.

Surprisingly his most vocal critics were his own fans, a popular Twitter account, @1DUpdates, which has almost 800,000 followers.

"Cultural appropriation is not nice, regardless of context or intent. let's leave it at that," the account, run by @sharon__scottm @tiffanyytao, @kristyleaa and @sydneyanne_x, remarked after the black and white image was published.'Cultural appropriation isn't nice, regardless of context': Harry Styles sparks a race row among One Direction FANS as he poses in Native American headpiece

By Louise SandersHarry Styles has sparked a Twitter racism row among One Direction fans after posing in a Native American headpiece for an Instagram shot.

The 20-year-old pop heartthrob threw on in a feathered war bonnet, traditionally worn in battle and for ceremonial occasions, in an artistic black and white snap, which was promptly uploading to the social networking site.

But the image quickly divided his loyal army on micro-blogging site Twitter, in particular receiving criticism from fan account @1Dneews, which boasts an impressive 732,000 followers.The 14 Most Absurd Twitter Responses To Harry Styles Being Called Racist

By Alexis RhiannonHarry Styles Native American headdress photo March 2014A funny thing happened on the world wide web today--Harry Styles changed his profile picture on Twitter to a photo of himself wearing a Native American headdress, and suddenly the internet imploded.

First it imploded with a bunch of people asking him to take it down, because they felt it was an appropriation of the Native American culture. And while there were some rude responses sprinkled in there, for the most part, it was people very politely asking that he select another photo. Some people did throw out the word ‘racist’, but regardless, they were largely calm, measured responses just basically being like, “Dude, not cool, please take it down and think it over in the future.”

It happened enough times that Harry went ahead and took it down. (Probably a good move, if you ask me.) But then came the second implosion--fans who were extraordinarily pissed at the implication that Harry could be anything but perfect. And these are Directioners, so you know they’re not skimping on the caps or the invectives.One Direction Fans React as Harry Styles Native American Headdress Pic Causes 'Racism' Controversy

Comment:  The main difference between this and the Christina Fallin controversy are 1) Styles or someone took down the photo in a couple of hours--as soon as people started criticizing it on Twitter. 2) Styles didn't offer a tone-deaf faux-pology trying to justify his actions. As Fallin's case proves, the "apology" is often worse than the offense.

For more on the subject, see Crystle Lightning in a Headdress and Why Hipster Headdresses Aren't Okay.