Current:Home > reviewsWhich skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think -Dynamic Wealth Solutions
Which skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think
View
Date:2025-04-24 11:54:22
Heath Racela identifies as three-quarters white and one-quarter Filipino. When texting, he chooses a yellow emoji instead of a skin tone option, because he feels it doesn't represent any specific ethnicity or color.
He doesn't want people to view his texts in a particular way. He wants to go with what he sees as the neutral option and focus on the message.
"I present as very pale, very light skinned. And if I use the white emoji, I feel like I'm betraying the part of myself that's Filipino," Racela, of Littleton, Mass., said. "But if I use a darker color emoji, which maybe more closely matches what I see when I look at my whole family, it's not what the world sees, and people tend to judge that."
In 2015, five skin tone options became available for hand gesture emojis, in addition to the default Simpsons-like yellow. Choosing one can be a simple texting shortcut for some, but for others it opens a complex conversation about race and identity.
"I use the brown one that matches me," said Sarai Cole, an opera singer in Germany. "I have some friends who use the brown ones, too, but they are not brown themselves. This confuses me."
Cole is originally from California and identifies as Black and an American Descendant of Slavery. She said that while she was not offended when a non-brown friend used a dark emoji, she would like to understand why.
"I think it would be nice if it is their default, but if they're just using it with me or other brown people, I would want to look into that deeper and know why they're doing that," she said.
Jennifer Epperson, from Houston, identifies as Black and said she changed her approach depending on who she was talking to.
"I use the default emoji, the yellow-toned one for professional settings, and then I use the dark brown emoji for friends and family," she said. "I just don't have the emotional capacity to unpack race relations in the professional setting."
Is the yellow emoji really neutral?
A 2018 study published by the University of Edinburgh looked at the use of different skin tone emojis — what it referred to as "modified" emojis — on Twitter to find out if the modifiers contributed to self-representation.
Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google and Ph.D. candidate involved in the study, said the emoji modifiers were used widely but it was people with darker skin who used them in higher proportions, and more often.
After another look at Twitter data, Andrew McGill, then writer for The Atlantic, found that some white people may stick with the yellow emoji because they don't want to assert their privilege by adding a light-skinned emoji to a text, or to take advantage of something that was created to represent diversity.
Perhaps, like Heath Racela, they simply don't want to think about how their message could be interpreted.
But Zara Rahman, a researcher and writer in Berlin, argues that the skin tone emojis make white people confront their race as people of color often have to do. For example, she shared Sarai Cole's confusion when someone who is white uses a brown emoji, so she asked some friends about it.
"One friend who is white told me that it was because he felt that white people were overrepresented in the space that he was using the [brown] emoji, so he wanted to kind of try and even the playing field," Rahman said. "For me, it does signal a kind of a lack of awareness of your white privilege in many ways."
Rahman, who in 2018 wrote the article for the Daily Dot, "The problem with emoji skin tones that no one talks about," also challenges the view that the yellow emoji — similar to the characters from The Simpsons — is neutral, because on that show, "there were yellow people, and there were brown people and there were Black people."
She said there was a default in society to associate whiteness with being raceless, and the emojis gave white people an option to make their race explicit.
"I completely hear some people are just exhausted [from] having to do that. Many people of color have to do that every day and are confronted with race every day," Rahman said. "But for many white people, they've been able to ignore it, whether that's subconsciously or consciously, their whole lives."
Rahman admits there's no specific answer to all the questions about emoji use but said it was an opportunity to think about how people want to represent their identities.
"I think it's more one of those places where we just have to think about who we are and how we want to represent our identities," she said. "And maybe it does change depending on the season; depending on the context."
veryGood! (441)
Related
- Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
- US calls Nicaragua’s decision to leave Organization of American States a ‘step away from democracy’
- Wilson, Sutton hook up for winning TD as Broncos rally to end Vikings’ 5-game winning streak, 21-20
- Taiwan presidential frontrunner picks former de-facto ambassador to U.S. as vice president candidate
- Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
- Cassie Ventura reaches settlement in lawsuit alleging abuse, rape by ex-boyfriend Sean Diddy Combs
- Ford, Stellantis, and GM workers overwhelmingly ratify new contracts that raise pay across industry
- 'Saltburn' basks in excess and bleak comedy
- Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
- Black Friday deals at Florida amusement parks: Discounts at Universal, SeaWorld, LEGOLAND
Ranking
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Microsoft hires OpenAI founders to lead AI research team after ChatGPT maker’s shakeup
- Palestinians in the West Bank say Israeli settlers attack them, seize their land amid the war with Hamas
- 3rd release of treated water from Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant ends safely, operator says
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- Graham Mertz injury update: Florida QB suffers collarbone fracture against Missouri
- Jordan Travis' injury sinks Florida State's season, creates College Football Playoff chaos
- Blocked from a horizontal route, rescuers will dig vertically to reach 41 trapped in India tunnel
Recommendation
Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
Billboard Music Awards 2023: Complete Winners List
2024 NFL draft first-round order: Carolina Panthers continue to do Chicago Bears a favor
What is the healthiest chocolate? How milk, dark and white stack up.
US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
AP Top 25: Ohio State jumps Michigan, moves to No. 2. Washington, FSU flip-flop at Nos. 4-5
US Defense Secretary Austin makes unannounced visit to Ukraine
How Patrick Mahomes Really Feels About Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's Romance