Ellen DeGeneres posted a picture on Twitter this Tuesday that shows her riding Usain Bolt‘s back, and the public did not like it at all, especially the Africa-American community.
The famous host is well-known for her lively sense of humor. She photoshopped a Usain Bolt’s picture, from Rio 2016, that shows her riding the fastest man alive. She accompanied the picture with a message saying “this is how I’m doing my errands from now on” with the Rio 2016 hashtag.
It seems like a harmless joke about Bolt’s athleticism, but people saw it through the lens of race. According to some people, the Twit is rather racist because it shows a white rich woman riding a black man.
This is how I’m running errands from now on. #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/gYPtG9T1ao
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 15, 2016
Usain Bolt retweeted DeGeneres picture
Usain Bolt won his third Olympic gold medal in the men’s 100 meters this Sunday, keeping the title of the fastest man in the world. The intentions of DeGeneres were to acknowledge the Olympic feat, but people made their own interpretation.
“I’M HIGHLY AWARE OF THE RACISM THAT EXISTS IN OUT COUNTRY. IT IS THE FARTHEST THING FROM WHO I AM,” said Degeneres on another Twit in response to the accusations.
Not everybody is criticizing the Ellen. There is a lot of people that understood it was a simple joke. As a result, Degeneres’ Twitter feed is a war zone between those who attack her and the ones who defend her.
The tweet has more than 72000 likes and over 29,000 retweets, and as a matter of fact, the Jamaican athlete retweeted it. So, it would be safe to say he didn’t feel offended by the picture.
Bolt previously appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres TV show back in November 2015. In the episode, she said she was pleased to know the fastest man in the world also had a charming personality.
Ellen might have a lot in common with Dory after all
Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian, television host, writer, producer, and actress. She currently hosts a TV talk show named after here.
Ellen started her stand-up comedy career in 1980 and eventually made it to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. As a film actress, she appeared in 1996’s ‘Mr. Wrong’ and a couple of other films. More recently, she starred in Disney Pixar’s animated movie ‘Finding Dory.’ A role she earned giving her voice to the forgetful fish on ‘Finding Nemo’ movie in which Dory was a secondary character.
During an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1997, she came out as a lesbian. Later her character on the Ellen show, Ellen Morgan, also confessed her sexual orientation to a therapist played by Winfrey. She was the first lesbian actress to play a lesbian character on TV.
Source: E Online
