Warning: Racism and lynching imagery ahead. Thanks to reader Kali for pointing this one out.

According to the racial justice site Colorlines, which I believe broke the story, a graphic design company called Seasalt & Co. posted the following image on its FB page. The image was taken down the next day.

Apparently folks protested using this imagery — indelibly associated with the mass murders of Black people — to sell Photoshop accessories. According to Feministe, the company posted this non-apology on FB:

Do I really have to parse the wrongness? “We are sorry for all those who feel offended” is an interesting twist on the more familiar “sorry if”  — not only do we not acknowledge any culpability, not only do we put the onus back on those we might have accidentally offended, we ACTIVELY PITY you philistines who do not understand art! We feel sadness for you non-visionaries! We tried to explain our genius (in an earlier reply to a supportive comment thanking the poster for understanding that “Being hung wasn’t designed just for one race of people. There is a long standing history and more to what is being seen in this advertising image. It represents so much more.”) FREE SPEECH! ANTI-HATE! SPARTAAAAAA!

Inexplicably, people were not appeased. The apology was taken down. This appeared.

You may be a Black person in America, but you have no clue how much Photoshop artists have suffered. Please, let us explain to you how noose symbolism is about ALL OF US. #notallnooses

That came down too. There were some threatening tweets involving legal action and non-apologizing some more.

(We apologize for you non-understanding! A new level in passive-aggressiveness!)

Fascinatingly, the company’s response to the Twitter outrage quickly involved a very different view of artistic freedom.)

As Wonkette, which reposted this series of tweets pointed out, “Not only did they sleep through Business Communication, they also took First Amendment law from Sarah Palin.”

Inexplicably, rather than immediately suing everyone and throwing nooses over every tree in the name of the artistic freedom that only some people deserve, Seasalt took down everything (including, it seems, its entire Facebook page). BUT WHAT ABOUT THE VICTIMIZED PHOTOSHOP ARTISTS? WHO WILL SPEAK FOR THEM? WHO WILL CURVE-ADJUST THE TONAL RANGE TO MAKE THE BLOOD ON THE LEAVES REALLY POP? WHO WILL GRAYSCALE THE STRANGE AND BITTER CROP OF VECTOR GRAPHICS?

The last word, for now, is Seasalt and Co.’s response to Petapixel, a photography technology blog, that asked for a comment.

Let me paraphrase: It’s not about race. Like Ruby Bridges, we choose to walk past the screaming, spitting, hateful haters trying to take our freedoms away. Sadly, there is nothing to be done about close-minded people. LOTS OF PEOPLE HAVE NOOSES. We understand that some people are oversensitive, and we support their disability, which is probably caused by too much melanin that they should see someone about. Maybe they were upset because of something something about American history?  — we are ARTISTS and are more concerned with timelessness than some specific thing or time, but we understand not everyone has the broadness and universality of our vision. Regardless of the way all kinds of people now and in the past may or may not have suffered, WE have suffered MORE because of our commitment to the creation of the best Photoshop PS/PSE Action Packages we can make. It really doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, purple or green — if you don’t appreciate fine Photoshop PS/PSE Action Packages, we understand why you need to bully us. We offer you our pity, and “apologize for any hurt feelings as that was not our intent.”

Vile apology. Go now.