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Apple Is Finally Working on Racially Diverse Emojis That Aren’t Complete Stereotypes

2 minute read
By Laura Stampler

Apple’s emoji language has left a lot to be desired. Namely, racially diverse depictions of people who aren’t complete stereotypes:

 

There are 63 different animals but zero black emojis. Other than salsa dancing Latinas and turban wearing South East Asians, faces, families and even hand gestures have always, well, looked like this:

And that’s just a rough sampling.

Emojis have infiltrated our modern lexicon. Some advertisers have even exclusively used the language to reach a millennial audience in commercials. And now, finally, after years of people petitioning, tweeting, and begging for a racially diverse representation, Apple is making an “effort to update the standard.” An Apple VP emailed an MTV blogger who asked Tim Cook what the deal was:

“Tim 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.”

Finally!

Diverse emojis were indisputably the most egregious absence in the the pictorial language. But as long as Apple is updating selection, here are a few other things we’d like to see:

  • A menorah. Or really any religious symbol outside of Christianity. (No offense Santa.)
  • Men dancing. They like to salsa, too!
  • More food. Tacos, bacon, for the love of God some CHEESE.
  • Beyonce’s face with a crown on top
  • A mustache. Or if the hipsters petition effectively, a monocle .
  • A big middle finger, because come on Apple. It really shouldn’t have taken this long.

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