http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/10/how-apples-new-multicultural-emojis-are-more-racist-than-before/
So Facebook linked me to this article, which after reading, makes me mad at the world. Seems like political correctness has consumed our lives as Americans. Don't get me wrong; in some ways this is a great thing, but in others, it makes life completely miserable out of fear of offending someone else for something you feel is so minor. This is the case with Apple's new emojis- along with the software update, emojis can now be customized by skin color. Apple listened to what consumers were demanding, providing them with new diverse emojis. But of course, with change comes controversy.
The article I linked to above was written for the Washington Post by a young black woman named Paige Tutt. She explains that Apple's new set of emojis presents all sorts of new problems in her life- is she now strictly to use the black emojis? will people act more prejudiced towards her because of her emoji selection versus theirs? will people judge her if she chooses the wrong skin tone? People are now complaining that Apple "whitewashed" the emojis, not changing facial features and only skin tone.
OMG. If these are issues in your life, then you have it pretty good, in my opinion. I feel as if complaints like these are just another excuse for someone to bitch about something. Racism, prejudice, and race relations DO matter, but emojis do NOT. Yes, whitewashing is awful, but did Apple really have to create a different version emoji for every single race of iPhone user for people to be satisfied?? If so, people still would not be satisfied because Apple would change the facial features according to race (the author used plumper lips, wider noses as examples for black emojis) which would seem even more racist! It really goes to show, people will always find something to complain about- what do you guys think about this?!
I agree! There was another racial issue with the emojis where Clorox tweeted about wanting a bleach emoji, which many people thought was racist. I think people will look for something offensive in anything, even if it's meant to be more diversity-friendly.
ReplyDeleteHere's the article:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/09/technology/clorox-emoji-tweet/
People seriously care about this sort of stuff? Its crazy to think about how people's views of discrimination have evolved with the modernization of society. I agree with Kasey, people always feel like they are somehow being oppressed. Maybe they should change their focus to ending discrimination in a field that is actually significant.
ReplyDeleteI think that as a culture, we do try our best to be "politically correct," but it seems that more often than not, these attempts raise more issues than they solve. No matter what Apple did with the new emojis, someone would have had an issue with it. Like you said, had Apple released new emojis that were basically caricatures of different races and ethnicities, the backlash would have been even worse!
ReplyDeleteI did find the article reflective of my own dilemmas with the new emojis though. Will it be interpreted as racist if I used emojis other than the "white" one? Do I now have to choose different emoji colors based on who I am sending it to? Should we do what the Washington Post article suggests and make them all raceless with yellow faces? Or would that in turn raise even more issues regarding race?
Honestly I think no matter what happens in our country, someone will view it as empowering and someone will view it as horrible racism. Race is such a complicated issue and has such diverse nationwide opinions that I don't think everyone can ever be pleased. Someone will always claim an outrage. Before seeing your post, I had seen a lot of posts on imgur by African Americans claiming that they were upset that there were no "black emojis." To me, seeing this post in contrast to that kind of illustrates the diversity of opinions on issues like this.
DeleteAlso, I just meant to reply to the original post, but I got confused.
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