Mother slams NBA, twitter users after false racism accusations made about Santa Fe High students

A picture posted by the NBA on its Twitter page, featuring survivors of the May 18 Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas, has sparked outrage.

The photo, posted by the NBA on May 25, depicts students of Santa Fe High standing together at a basketball game, singing the national anthem.

But one detail stood out at Twitter users in what has been labelled a photo “cropped just to start a stink”.

The Twittersphere was quick to call out that the white girls in the photo “refuse” to hold the black girl’s hand during the anthem.

And some comments on the post took an ugly turn.

The mother of the student, Nicole, was quick to defend her daughter’s classmates, slamming commenters for jumping to conclusions and permeating false accusations of racism.

She also called out the NBA for publishing a photo she claims was “cropped just to start a stink.”

She wasn't the only one who questioned the cropping of the photo.

The post sparked further debate over the internet’s tendency to assume that a ‘picture tells a thousand words’, while supporters of Nicole and her classmates called on the Twittersphere to stop “playing the race card” and “jumping to conclusions when you don’t have any facts”.

Nicole’s mum shared a photo of her daughter smiling amongst her classmates following the anthem.

While users have demanded that the NBA delete the photo, or publish the full photo, the US basketball association has not responded at the time this article was published.