Clothing retailer fires employee after he posted about a T-shirt that said ‘bat fried rice’ on social media

In response to liberal outrage, athletic leisurewear company Lululemon apologized after its art director shared a social media image of a "bat fried rice" T-shirt design on his personal Instagram page.

Lululemon fired the art director upon discovering what some outlets referred to as a racist — and "anti-Asian" — image.

What are the details?

Trevor Fleming, the company's former art director, shared an Instagram link on Sunday that pointed users to a T-shirt design featuring a box of take-out Chinese food reading, "bat fried rice."

The box was adorned with bat wings, and its sleeves read, "No Thank You."

According to NBC News, the T-shirt was designed by California artist Jess Sluder. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Sluder reportedly shared a snap of the shirt and captioned it, "Where did COVID-19 come from? Nothing is certain, but we know a bat was involved. Beginning today, my limited edition #quarantees are now available." Sluder used the #humornothate and #batfriedrice to accompany his social media post.

In a statement to USA Today, Lululemon spokesperson Erin Hankinson said, "At Lululemon, our culture and values are core to who we are, and we take matters like this extremely seriously. We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive T-shirt. ... The image and the post were inappropriate and inexcusable and we do not tolerate this behavior."

"We acted immediately," Hankinson insisted, "and the person involved is no longer an employee of Lululemon."

Hankinson also told HuffPost, "The T-shirt design is not a Lululemon product. We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive T-shirt."

Social media user Kamauri Yeh shared an image of the T-shirt in question on Twitter.

She captioned the post, "There have been 100+ daily attacks on Asian Americans since the start of #COVID19. To see people adding to the hurt & racism hurts my heart. I hope someone picks up this story and these individuals take responsibility. I am more proud than ever to be part of the AA community."

Anything else?

Fleming told NBC News that he deeply regrets posting an image of the shirt.

"It is something I deeply regret, and my eyes have been opened to the profound ripple effect that this mistake has had," Fleming said, according to the outlet. "I apologize to those that have been hurt by this. ... I commit to standing up against racist or discriminatory behavior and will work hard to ensure that my personal and professional contributions in the future are kind, inclusive, and supportive."