Today in the Post-Racial Society
By Home improvement maker Home Depot Inc. on Thursday apologized for a tweet that showed a picture of two African-American drummers with a person in a gorilla mask in between them and asked: “Which drummer is not like the others?”
The tweet, from Home Depot’s official Twitter account, @HomeDepot, was part of a “College Gameday” college football promotion on ESPN. It was quickly pulled, but not before people took screen shots of it and it was widely circulated on social media. NBC and CNBC, among others, reported on the Tweet.
Home Depot said Friday that it has fired the person and outside agency that was responsible for the tweet, but did not disclose their names.
“We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” said Stephen Holmes, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company.
The fact that Home Depot fired the agency responsible for the tweet is outrageous. It clearly has nothing to do with real racism. You know, like claiming that Trayvon Martin shouldn’t have been shot dead by George Zimmerman for being black, thinking the Washington Racist Insignias have an offensive mascot, or supporting the rights of African-Americans to vote. The real racists here are Home Depot executives for firing those truth tellers.