Ellen DeGeneres of all people was in the internet cross-hairs earlier this week for a photo and tweet that had some accusing her of racism.
The talk show host thought she was celebrating another dominant performance by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt after he won yet another gold medal in the 100m at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
A day after Bolt’s gold medal performance, DeGeneres tweeted the following photoshopped picture, with her on the back of Bolt as he cruised to the finish line in a qualifying race, a photo that’s received plenty of attention in recent days.
Some viewed the photoshopped meme as racist, claiming Ellen implied that she was “riding on the back of a black man.”
And there obviously were more.
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 apparently wasn’t too bothered by the tweet, either. He actually retweeted the original tweet, one of more than 33,000 people to do so as of Wednesday morning.
A day after the original tweet, DeGeneres followed up with this clarification.
Thumbnail photo via James Lang/USA TODAY Sports Images