Ellen Saw The Digital Dash!

Comedian Ellen Degeneres under fire for a social media tweet that went wrong.

The queen of nice is being called a racist after she posted on social media a photoshop image of her clinging to the back of Olympic Gold runner Usain Bolt. 

Ellen Degeneres is facing a barrage of criticism after she tweeted an image of her on the back of the world's fastest runner. It was liked by over 100K supporters. It even attracted Usain to retweet the image. 

Given the concerns of Black Lives Matter and the ever watching junk food media, it forced a discussion on the issue. 

The Goodmenproject says this is precisely the centuries-old wound that the Usain/Ellen meme irates.

Those who find the controversy overblown may not have such triggering images fresh in their minds, or more likely are shielded by privilege. When that imagery is repeated over and over, it forms the same unconscious biases that keep systemic racism alive.

Furthermore, a fair amount of people feel like they carry the weight of the privileged upper class on their shoulders. To a racial minority making low wages and paying high taxes, Ellen’s meme may hit an exposed nerve before it hits your funny bone. If you feel harnessed for profit and put-upon so that the darling Ellens of the world can locomote effortlessly, it’s not so funny. Her mischievously riding Usain’s back may register as less adorable and more parasitic, triggering not entertainment but justifiable resentment.

Taking a simple situation to ridiculous extremes is a common path to humor. When the presented scenario is so far-fetched, the easiest way to confirm its improbability is to laugh at it… hard. Our amusement hinges on the collective understanding: “Ellen is so silly with her exaggerations. Riding the back of an adult male like an animal? This would never, ever happen!”

However, the reason it’s not funny is because of all the times when that actually did happen. Under the surface of the laugh, there is a long, shadowy history in America of dehumanizing and objectifying people of color, particularly in treating them like animals. This may show up as calling them monkeys and gorillas or riding them like a kept horse. At one time there was even the insidious practice of using Black children as alligator bait. And new instances still pop up in the recent era, such as in 2014 when magazine editor Dasha Zhukova was photographed sitting on a chair made of a very lifelike and sexualized mannequin of a Black woman.

As you remember, Gabby Douglas was in the junk food media's crosshairs. Some conservatives were angry over Gabby not putting her hand on her heart during the U.S. national anthem. They were calling ungrateful. They say that she should go back to Africa.

This is how Black athletes are treated.

Ellen you got some explaining to do.