A racist tweet sent by a social media contractor of Home Depot has generated large unprecedented online outrage. The tweet which originated from Depot’s official Twitter handle, @HomeDepot, was part of a college football game promotion by ESPN. Although it was quickly deleted, many people had already taken screenshots of it and widely circulated it on the social media.

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The tweet showed a picture of two African Americans drummers and one person in a gorilla mask seated between them and asked “which drummer is not like the others?”

Home Depot has already issued a statement condemning the act, and apologizing for it. “We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” read Home Depot tweet. It also says that it has fired the individual who was responsible for the tweet, but it has not indicated who the individual is.

We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated agency and individual who posted it.

— The Home Depot (@HomeDepot) November 7, 2013

Depot says that it is closely reviewing its social media procedures in order to determine how this could have happened and ensure that the same never happens again. Since Thursday, Home Depot has been frantically sending the same apology in its twitter account bearing the same message, “we have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated the agency and individual who posted it.”

It remains to be seen to what extent this unfortunate incident will damage the home improvement retailer’s brand. Home Depot is not the first company to be involved in racist Twitter comments. In 2012, KitchenAid also received public backlash after one of its employees posted a tweet about President Obama’s grandmother’s death.

(image via today.com)