What's wrong with this cover?

""My apologies to anyone who was offended by our cover--that certainly wasn't our intent," said PW's editorial director, Brian Kenney. Kenney, however, said he was "delighted that Publishers Weekly was able to draw so much attention to Lauren Kelley's powerful photograph," which comes from Deborah Willis's book, Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present. 

The image was used to introduce the magazine's cover story, written by Felicia Pride, about African-American book publishing.

Among the complaints: "We don't get the 'Afro Picks!' cover. It's not hip, cute, or appealing." Another critic called it "a big mistake," while another described it as "ridiculous." One commenter even asked Publishers Weekly "what were you thinking?" And those are just the complaints that the magazine revealed in its apology about the cover. 

By Monday afternoon, Twitter was "swarming" with mostly critical comments about the cover illustration, PW admits.

"It didn't take long before complaints began to circulate on Twitter about the image used on the cover of this week's Publishers Weekly to illustrate the annual feature on African-American book publishing," PW senior news editor, Calvin Reid wrote on the magazine's web site.

Reid said he chose the cover in collaboration with the magazine's creative director and wrote the coverline, Afro Picks!, himself. He thought it would be seen as a pun to highlight a story that "picked" new black titles of interest.

Reid continues:

"The image was reminiscent of the 1970s and appealed to me, someone who grew up in the middle of the 1970s-era wave of black pride, black power and big afros with big afro picks stuck right in the back. To me it is a sweet, tongue-in-cheek funny and striking image of quirky black hair power. And while it never occurred to me that anyone would be offended by these images, I was very wrong and I have to acknowledge that. Quite a few people were offended by it and outraged by what some perceive as a disparaging or degrading image of a black woman. I certainly regret offending anyone and while I still love that image, I intend to think long and hard about whatever image is chosen for next year's cover.