(The Root) — The University of Alabama came under fire on Twitter on Tuesday after an otherwise normal stock photo depicting the school's student body went viral.
The issue? Tweeters claimed that the hands of the black student pictured looked much lighter than his face, which led to suspicion that the photo had been altered to make the school appear more diverse and inclusive.
One tweeter noted:
UA took to Twitter to deny the claim:
Bad news for the conspiracy theorists: Turns out the student is actually black — both in the photo and in real life. And he got a good laugh out of this, calling the controversy amusing.
"It's kind of funny, but people are blowing it out of proportion a little bit," David Jackson said in an interview with All Alabama. "I can't do anything about the way I look."
This made-up coverup is probably the last thing UA needed. Earlier this year the school found itself being accused of racist practices when rumors surfaced that the staff and alumni had been invested in maintaining their segregated sorority system.
Well, we're glad the mystery is solved. But who doesn't have one part of their body that isn't a slightly different shade than the other? I think it's called sun exposure or something, but I'm no expert!
If you want to see what's hot on black Twitter, check out The Chatterati.Akoto Ofori-Atta is the editor of The Grapevine. Like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.