Ellen DeGeneres, one of America’s most beloved amusing people, was called to task by Twitter users, after a digitally alerted image that she posted of herself riding on Usain Bolt’s back to the Olympic finish line was deemed racist by the online community.
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HollywoodLifers, do you think Ellen’s meme could be considered racist?
Ellen DeGeneres faced criticism after posting a meme of herself riding on Usain Bolt’s back.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Canada’s Andre De Grasse smile as they compete in the 200m semi-finals.
According to Variety, the post came just as Bolt won his third gold at Rio, and plays on the idea that he’d get Ellen around faster than her vehicle would.
Bolt will run for a gold medal in the 200 meters this week, aiming to be the first man to ever win both the 100-meter and 200-meter events at three straight Olympic games.
Some found it amusing, others found the imagery of a white woman on a black man’s back running for errands racist.
Seems Usain Bolt also agreed and retweeted the original tweet from DeGeneres.
The intended joke immediately began to receive an influx of backlash from Twitter users, calling out the 58-year-old for being “racist” and “insensitive”.
This caused Ellen to tweet out a statement in which she wrote that she was aware of the state of racism in the country and she was not, in any way, a racist.
Bolt, who was a guest on her show past year, also retweeted the image, further supporting Ellen’s claims that the meme was not meant to cause offence.
Though DeGeneres is known to use her Twitter account to jokingly insert herself in popular images, a number of people found this instance to be a step too far.
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“Probably, I should have rested it instead of running on it”, said Gatlin, who finished second to Bolt in the 100.
