This ‘Apology’ From CoverGirl Is Almost As Bad As The Racist Tweet They’re Supposedly Saying Sorry For

CoverGirl’s first ever male model found himself in the middle of a huge controversy after he tweeted that “All Africa has is Ebola.” Because, well, racism.

When James Charles was first picked up by CoverGirl in October, people were mostly just excited that the brand was finally reaching out to an often-overlooked demographic. But since his comment about Africa, the tides have changed, and a lot of people would prefer to do without him.

https://twitter.com/HoneyLuLu_/status/832284749335056384

While neither James nor CoverGirl immediately apologized, the brand eventually came out with their own version of a statement: a photo of the male model hugging Zendaya, taken from their 10-minute makeup challenge video.

Ah, yes. How could we forget? He hung out with a Black person once, remember? He even hugged her. Obviously he can’t be racist if he got along with her, right?

People were understandably upset by CoverGirl’s apology — or lack thereof — and took to Twitter to let the company know.

https://twitter.com/poedamcron/status/833041499126427650

https://twitter.com/rileytharvey/status/832416863657271298

https://twitter.com/klances/status/832268375078346755

Even Zendaya didn’t hold back from saying something through a well-picked meme.

https://twitter.com/Zendaya/status/832356149978558466

James eventually apologized himself via — you guessed it — Twitter.

https://twitter.com/jamescharles/status/832333923208331264

https://twitter.com/jamescharles/status/832343350850310144

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time James tweeted some problematic things.

James has since deleted the tweets, some of which he wrote when he was 14.