Ellen DeGeneres Answers Racism Accusations

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Ellen DeGeneres is the last person you would expect to find in the middle of a racism controversy. On her talk show, she’s nice to everyone. She hands out giant checks. She’s the voice of a beloved Pixar character. And now she’s also the comedian accused of creating racist memes.

The meme in question is the now world famous photo of Gold Medalist Usain Bolt giving a big smile to his competitors as he passed them by in the 100m semi-final with Ellen photoshopped on top of him, like Bolt was giving her a piggyback ride. The doctored pic included Ellen’s caption, “This is how I’m running errands from now on”.

What happened next was as shocking to Ellen DeGeneres as Venus and Serena Williams getting knocked out of the opening round of Olympic tennis by the ladies from the Czech Republic. She was accused of tweeting a racist meme. On a side note, 10 years ago, that last sentence wouldn’t have made any sense at all.

The anti-Ellen backlash ran a gauntlet of emotions. It ranged from the meme being called insensitive to being called racist garbage to a call for a boycott of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. There was accusations of Ellen being ignorant in depicting a black man as a form of transportation. Of course, for every accusation of Ellen being a blatant racist, there was a Twitter chorus of people coming to her defense and claiming that any complaints were political correctness run amok or people being crybabies that can’t take a joke. You can see a variety of the tweets below.

Anyone expecting an apology from Ellen or at the very least, expecting her to take down the meme was disappointed. The meme is still up @TheEllenShow. However, the daytime host isn’t ignoring the controversy. She did tweet out a response saying, “I am highly aware of the racism that exists in our country. It is the furthest thing from who I am.” And that’s where she’s left it for now. Her Twitter account was back to business as usual, wishing happy birthday to celebrity friends and happy anniversary to her wife, Portia de Rossi. If the “outrage” against Ellen DeGeneres is upsetting her, she certainly isn’t showing it. And in case anyone is wondering, Usain Bolt retweeted Ellen’s meme, but hasn’t commented on it. He’s too busy winning gold medals.

https://twitter.com/jennib3/status/765617826144985089

https://twitter.com/twiztedtree/status/765665233167749120

https://twitter.com/emilypttrsn/status/765339751910080514

https://twitter.com/Cobanermani456/status/765695884323614720

https://twitter.com/MikeAllen_47/status/765332700194443264

https://twitter.com/angryblackhoemo/status/765589466857734146

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper