Alpha Meteyard

December 5, 2014
CIS 110

Digital Communication: Real World Application

Twitter has become extremely popular and used around the world. However, people
make huge mistakes with this form of social media. Home Depot tweeted a picture of three men,
two which were black men on each side of a white man with a monkey mask on. The caption of
the picture was, Which drummer is not like the others? See more @CollegeGameDay [.]
#HDgameday #football. Needless to say, the Twittersphere blew up with comments on how this
was racism and went into an uproar.
Obviously, there error was that they had their head in the clouds with the game,
overlooking any racial suggestions their photo may have incorporated. I get the sense that the
person responsible for this mistake was unaware of what they were doing and that it was
unintentional, however these mistakes are never easily forgiven and the one responsible was
fired in result.
Why were the consequences so grave? It was due to the communication error of equality
and referencing humanity to something animalist and unevolved. When one hears something is
racist it is automatically assumed that it is not inflicted upon white people. However, it is hard
for me to tell in this picture. Either people were up in arms because they associate black men

with an ape and it was degrading, or they degraded the white man by putting him in an ape
costume.
The mistake was addressed with extensive apologies and the termination of the person
responsible for this tweet. It seems pretty harsh. In my opinion, I would react the same way,
however I may only give a severe warning to the person responsible for this action and give their
position to a new person. Also, I would have a company meeting and education program on
ethics and equality that would be mandatory to all staff. The final thing that I would do would be
to closely monitor the company twitter after such an incident.