Animal Crossing: New Horizons Space Bun controversy, explained

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is considered a very conflict-free, easy-going game. However, this happy-go-lucky title became the center of a huge Twitter controversy in late 2020.

Nintendo introduced afro puffs in its big winter update, which was much appreciated by the community, especially the Black players, since it meant they could finally truly express themselves in the game.

However, when non-Black players used the same hairstyle for their character in the game and referred to it as space buns, it offended a huge section of the community and led to a major divide within the same about the apparent gatekeeping of "black hairstyles."

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The Animal Crossing: New Horizons space buns controversy was huge on Twitter in 2020

The entire Animal Crossing: New Horizons space bun drama started when Twitter user @stardewleaf posted a picture of their in-game character sporting the hairstyle, which they referred to as "space buns."

The tweet was deleted shortly after, since it received a lot of flak from the Black Animal Crossing community.

The space buns tweet that went viral in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons community (Image via Bounding into Comics)

Shortly after the tweet was posted, fans began to debate whether the hairstyle in question was space buns or afro puffs.

Several Black members of the community explained why the hairstyle was clearly afro puffs, saying that while the hairstyle may resemble space buns, the textured nature of the buns made it clear that they were afro puffs, since white people do not have textured hair.

Furthermore, players noted that previous iterations of Animal Crossing had explored the space buns hairstyle, and it was not the same as the hairstyle added to New Horizons.

Many players took to Twitter to showcase the difference between afro puffs and space buns, both in real life and in the game.

This brought forth a huge debate regarding cultural appropriation, with a section accusing Black members of the New Horizons community of gatekeeping hairstyles within the game. Several users, on the other hand, could not understand the outrage over a game.

However, other members took the time to explain why misnaming the hairstyle was such a big deal for some players of the title. The main reason that emerged from the conversation was that Nintendo had added hairstyles like cornrows and afro puffs to enhance inclusivity in their latest title, but players of the game refused to acknowledge the same and continued misnaming them.

Animal Crossing players were upset about the misnaming of black hairstyles (Image via @Siianide/Twitter)

The New Horizons space buns incident was just one example of the deep-rooted issues that people face every day. Nintendo's effort at inclusivity was a big step for many players in the New Horizons community, since they could finally depict themselves close to their real appearance.

Naturally, they did not take it well when other players of the title tried to belittle their issues by misnaming the hairstyles.

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