The New York Times is catching flack for the inexplicable suggestion that Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce somehow invented or “introduced” the long-time popular hairstyle called “The Fade.”
The Fade hairstyle has been a mainstay in the black community for decades, of course. But the so-called “paper of record” seemed to think Kelce had created the style they labeled “the Travis Kelce hairdo.”
So went the paper’s Jan. 20 headline, which blared, “They’ll Take the Travis Kelce – Hairdo, That Is” and featured a photo of Kelce with the close-cropped, nearly shaved temples and the longer top that is clearly the same as “The Fade” style of cut.
Travis Kelce, #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs, looks on before kickoff against the Chicago Bears at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on September 24, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
Many black commentators were shocked by the Times’ effort to make the white football player the man responsible for popularizing the haircut, the New York Post reported
Sports commentator Shannon Sharpe scoffed at the Times’ claim, saying, “New York Times, so that’s how you start Black History Month?” Sharpe has had the “Kelce Cut” since 1986, when Kelce was a three-year-old toddler in Westlake, Ohio.
“I’m trying to figure out what black barbershop you go to and say, ‘ Let me get the Travis Kelce,'” Sharpe added.
Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill also lashed out at the Times.
“The NYT thinks that Travis Kelce invented the fade ♀️ When you have zero cultural competency on your staff, this is how you end up with stories like this,” she wrote.
https://twitter.com/jemelehill/status/175355280108991708
Many on social media piled on:
I have a fade in my fall 1988 college freshman ID photo, over a year before Travis Kelce was born. Can't wait for the next piece talking about Kelce making the Jheri Curl popular.
— Ken Barnes (@kenjbarnes1) February 3, 2024
The Times story noted how barber shops throughout the U.S. and Canada have seen customers asking for a haircut like Kelce’s.
“Mr. Kelce’s hairstyle, a buzz cut fade, is easy to replicate,” the paper’s Alyson Krueger wrote.
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