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Usain Bolt Reacts To Ellen DeGeneres Controversial Tweet

“It is the furthest thing from who I am”, her response read. She chose to have it look like she was getting a piggyback from Usain and captioned it, “This is how I’m running errands from now on”.

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Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres took to social media Tuesday to defend herself after some people blasted a humorous Usain Bolt photo she sent out as racist. DeGeneres immediately recognized the furor that was beginning to build and took to her own Twitter account to dispel the notion that she is a racist.

“So riding on his back like a mule, a horse as some form of property is fun to you…”

The overwhelming majority of DeGeneres’ followers, however, defended the star. Bryan Young wrote on Twitter. “Nothing more, nothing less”. “Nope. Delete this racist garbage”, one user tweeted.

It’s impossible to believe that the comedian had any ill intent or any hidden message.

However, her joke backfired as people considered it to be racist and insensitive.

For what it’s worth, there were also plenty of Twitter users coming to DeGeneres’ defense, arguing it was supposed to be a light-hearted commentary on Bolt’s Olympics dominance.

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.

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.

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And some of Ellen’s fans agreed that they weren’t offended by the tweet.

Ellen DeGeneres Usain Bolt                  Vera Anderson  WireImage Patrick Smith  Getty Images