Whether you‘re an avid emoji-user or prefer to express yourself solely with words, you should‘ve noticed by now that the standard, iOS emoji range offers a lot of different emojis – the only problem is, they are mostly of white people.
The issue of the “˜predominantly white‘ emojis has reared it‘s head a couple of times, with people asking why there are not many emojis that depict people of colour. So it should come as no surprise that the issue has been brought up again. Although this time around, Apple has responded.
There have been many outcries over the past year by people, and even celebrities like Miley Cyrus and actor Tahj Mowry, to diversify the standard iOS emoji range. However, it wasn‘t until MTV Act blogger, Joey Parker, sent an email directly to Apple‘s CEO, Tim Cook, that an official response was given.
Within in a day of sending his email complaining about the emojis lack of, well, people of colour, Parker received a response from Katie Cotton – Apple‘s vice president of worldwide corporate communications.
Cotton‘s email clearly stated that Apple is looking into this issue and that they agree that the emojis need to be more diverse:
“œTim forwarded your email to me. We agree with you. Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.“
While the issue of a more unified and diverse emoji-range is relevant, there seems to be some split feelings about the issue when it comes to the masses.
Some people feel that it is a small issue and that there are bigger and way more important racial discrimination issues in the world than seemingly meaningless smartphone emojis.
Others are on the other side of the fence and believe that, even though its a small issue, it contributes to the bigger issue of instilling a sense of diversity worldwide. These people are also actively campaign, along Miley Cyrus and co, to get updates emojis as soon as possible.
Then there is the middle ground. These people aren‘t actively campaigning for an update, but they are also not condoning the current state of iOS emojis.
Some of these people are also getting really techniacal and even analyzing the “˜origin of the emoji‘. They argue that because iOS emojis were first available in Japan, this then technically makes them Asian. Riiight.
However, Parker still believes that by changing (or rather updating) the emojis, you can touch on a bigger problem:
“œAlthough we have made great strides toward racial equality, it‘s apparent we still have a lot of work to do. Adding more diversity to emojis helps the process of creating more racial representation.“
What are your thoughts on racially diverse emojis? Do you agree that it is an important matter or do you think it‘s a waste of time and that people should rather be focusing on more pressing racial issues?
Let us know what yo think!
Source: TechCrunch
