Popular comedian Ellen Degeneres has been the subject of internet criticism after sharing a seemingly innocuous Photoshopped image of herself and Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt.

Degeneres edited the now-famous image of Bolt smiling as he raced to gold in Monday’s men’s 100-metre race to include an image of herself riding on the Jamaican athlete’s back.

“This is how I’m running errands from now on,” Degeneres captioned the photo.

Degeneres’ 61.5 million Twitter followers were less than impressed with the joke, accusing the 58-year-old of racism due to the apparent implied reference to slavery.

“So riding on his back like a mule, a horse as some form of property is fun to you,” one Twitter user said.

“You thought it’d be funny to post a pic of yourself riding on the back of a Black man? Nope. Delete this racist garbage,” another said.

https://twitter.com/BlackShiite/status/765372316742148097

Not everyone was offended — Bolt himself retweeted Degeneres and some fans leapt to her defence, arguing the tweet was more a joke about his speed than his skin colour.

“If the fastest man was white, she would have photoshopped herself on him as well so it’s not a race issue,” one social-media user said.

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While the original tweet is still on her page, Degeneres was forced to respond to the backlash on Twitter in a quasi-apology.

“I am highly aware of the racism that exists in our country. It is the furthest thing from who I am,” she tweeted on Wednesday.

I am highly aware of the racism that exists in our country. It is the furthest thing from who I am.

— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) August 16, 2016