There was a backlash to the backlash. What did you see in the controversial Converse ad?

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Recently, I reported on an image that was stirring controversy across social media. After we published our story, the arguments roiled our comments section and my inbox. Here is what I wrote:

The photo showed a figure in white carrying a pair of sneakers. But it looked an awful lot like a Ku Klux Klan member's pointed hood foregrounded by the dangling feet of a lynching victim, according to social media users.

The image was posted to the Instagram account of the shoe company Converse, a subsidiary of Nike, to promote the Chuck 70 X sneaker, which was released globally Aug. 27.

The photo in the post below is cropped. Online, an uncropped version circulated that was more striking in its resemblance to a hood and hanging. Almost immediately, social media users condemned the image.

"Shadow, light, and composition. Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew EXACTLY what they were doing," the Chicago-based photographer Stephanie Schwartz wrote on Threads on Thursday.

Another Threads user resurfaced an image from a Converse collaboration with the Copenhagen brand Palmes that featured a man on a ladder holding a pair of shoes slung across the branch of a tree, writing "this photo doubles down on the messaging."

"We're sorry," the brand said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post. "We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened and we will do better."

After our story published, more than 400 readers left comments. One sent an email that described any reference to a hood and a hanging in the photo as "your pure invention."

"Repeating baseless internet accusations isn't journalism, it's lazy, and it's offensive," the email continued.

I was among those shocked by the image. When I first saw the photo, before I had read anything about the controversy, it gave me a literal jump scare. Seeing feet dangle at that height and angle looked unmistakably like a person hanging. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the person was holding the sneakers. But by then I couldn't unsee what I had first seen.

The fashion commentator Jay Tibbitts, who also works in advertising as a strategy director, wrote this in a caption on Instagram:

"It's actually much easier for something like this to happen than you may think, especially when you're someone who's been in these rooms," he wrote. "The reality is that power dynamics and hierarchies are real in creative organizations. If an organization isn't set up to encourage voices that aren't at the top, people may not feel comfortable speaking up or challenging an idea. Also … no one's trying to get fired because they told their boss their idea was dumb."

This is, of course, not the first time that a corporation has released an image with unfortunate imagery. In 2021, the Indian clothing company Myntra changed its typography, and people thought the "M" looked like a woman spreading her legs. Some people thought the 2012 London Olympics logo looked like a crude drawing of a sex act. Google "11 logos to hide from kids" if you want to see more.

Like many others, I couldn't help but think of "the dress," that 2015 photo that appeared obviously blue and black or obviously gold and white, depending on who was looking. "The dress" was something everyone from Taylor Swift to local newscasters to your sweet Aunt Evelyn could argue about without tempers flaring or feelings getting hurt. Whatever you saw, it was a win-win situation.

This Converse image is the opposite. Instead of a lighthearted moment of monoculture, it's a reminder of our nation's ugly past and contentious present. People saw either a gruesome reminder of lynchings or a shameful example of manufactured outrage. That's about as lose-lose as you can get.

Today's four horsies

• Seventeen new smartphone-activated robo-toilets are slated to be installed in New York City. I'm so torn. On the one hand, it's nice that we're actually acknowledging that we are human beings with biological needs. On the other hand, I worry that the smell of human pee literally everywhere was the city's last line of defense against undesirable and boring people moving here.

• The L.A. Times says having a cat is a liability for straight guys. The New York Times says it's an asset. I say I've never been happier to not be straight. You can pry these cats from my cold, dead, perpetually fur-covered hands.

• Among the trends predicted by a fashion writer at InStyle: zebra print, purple and baggy jeans. Could this mean that we'll finally get the Lisa Frank x JNCO collaboration I've been praying for since junior high? Doritos claims the singular noun of "Doritos" is "Doritos." Akin to finding out the plural of "Lego" is "Lego." To both brands: Shuts ups. Who care?

Shane O'Neill connects the dots between entertainment news, internet fads, celebrity gossip and pop culture ephemera to sketch a portrait of how we live today.