Lance Gross received a bit of a backlash when he posted a photo over the holidays of him and a few of his friends booed up with their lighter-skinned significant others while a darker skinned woman sat to the side, alone.

Social media slammed the photo, saying it was a slight at women with darker complexions, calling the picture biased. But the actor had a response to the criticism.

The photo was taken at Big Bear Lake in California, and, according to the House of Payne actor, its concept was a long-running joke that he and his friends recreate every year.

Take a look, below:

In fact, according to Atlanta Black Star, the woman sitting by herself in the 2016 photo responded to the hate in an Instagram comment.

"Newsflash: Black people come in ALL shades," she wrote. "I'm dating someone special, but he didn't come to Big Bear this year. I take a pic like this EVERY YEAR making fun of that fact that I'm the only single on in the couples pic."

Watch the actor praise one of the first Black men in congress in the video, above.