Surprise: Michelle Williams Offends Native Americans with "Redface" Photoshoot

While promoting " link, and is now on the receiving end of some harsh words from a community that's been historically oppressed and caricatured in American pop culture.

The magazine responded to the criticism, telling E! Online the photoshoot was supposed to draw from various imaginary characters, and "while we dispute the suggestion that the image has a racist subtext in the strongest possible terms, we're mortified to think that anyone would interpret it that way."

Ruth Hopkins, an American Indian columnist and attorney, wrote on link, "just as Blackface is never okay, Redface is never okay. Ever." She writes, "donning the customary dress of a profession, like that of a cowboy, or a firefighter, or a police officer, is not comparable to wearing a hackneyed 'Indian' costume because being Native is not an occupation. American Indians are an entire race of people. Stop supporting images of American Indians. Racism is racism no matter what era our history you attempt to portray."

Packing a punch in at the end, she also adds that the movie Williams is promoting was based on the novels of L. Frank Baum, who was "a white supremacist; a flaming racist who called for the extermination of all American Indians."

The magazine cover also reads "There's no place like home," Dorothy's famous refrain from the original Oz. It may be a tagline, but next to the Indian getup (feathers, braids) it chafes given the legacy of forced dispossession and relocation. These photoshoot gimmicks have happened link, and they'll happen again, but it's equally cringe-worthy every time.