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RIDICULED: Tobi Akingbade

A RECENT graduate was reduced to tears after she was “racially ridiculed” for twice failing her degree with a blackface image of a white boy with chocolate spread smeared over his face.

Tobi Akingbade, 24, from London said she couldn't help but cry at her desk when she saw the hurtful and offensive image, which mocked a photo she had tweeted after graduating from the University of Hertfordshire at the third attempt in September.

The original image, along with the accompanying message, quickly went viral, being viewed nearly 500,000 times. The tweet said: “I failed uni twice. Did my final year three times. I graduate today. I give all the Glory to God.”

TWITTER TROLL: A Twitter user covered himself in chocolate spread to make fun of the graduate

But after sharing her exciting news, Akingbade, who is the Editor in Chief at Dream Nation, was horrified when a man shared the Nutella photo with the same words as her celebratory tweet.

The east Londoner said he had “asked if I was going to write an article about ‘How to fail uni multiple times?’” before doing so.

In an open letter on Medium.com, she addressed the troll, slamming him for sharing a blackface image.

She wrote: “I sat behind my screen at work and burst into tears... For a few seconds I felt worthless, meaningless and not very human…

“Using a photo of someone else in blackface doesn’t eradicate the fact that you used a photo with blackface to mimic me, a black woman.

“Blackface is not cool during Halloween and it’s not cool in February. Did you not know that you veered into racism when you turned me into an object of ridicule using blackface?”

The man who shared the tweet has since taken it down and apologised, after facing a barrage of criticism from supporters of Akingbade.

She said she accepted his apology, writing: "As weak as your apology was, I accept it.

"Why? Because I have a life to live and harbouring unforgivness does nothing for my own sanity.

"There is no way I’m letting the actions of an ignorant Twitter warrior stay rent free in my head."