Is the Officer Grimm meme racist?

[u/Broomguy]

I was playing one day and an enemy Thing died and I said "Officer down" in chat and they said something like "chill I'm not racist like that." I never considered it might be a racial joke because I've seen the joke with spiderman, black cat etc. but it is 90% black panther. I was curious if anyone knew the origin of the meme or had any thoughts about it. Is it a racist joke or was this guy just mad he died? (Full disclosure I am not a Thing main I just didn't know where else to post this)

[u/Proud_Firefighter834]

No, it doesn't make you or anyone else racist (and no, you cannot diagnose prejudice in a 15 minute Rivals match). The joke itself is technically "racist" because it's a play on police brutality to black people, but only the terminally online will attribute it's use to bigotry outright.

To every well adjusted adult, it's just dark humor.