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Why White People Don’t Use White Emoji

8 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

BillyParadise 10y ago
or maybe it's hard to read white on white, so people (unconsciously?) choose something more legible.
Jaruzel 10y ago
No-one is bright yellow, so the default is beautifully race-neutral. I never did see the need for the modifiers, as most of the time, your race is irrelevant to the conversation. If you really must shout out your race, then it should be done constructively and in way that adds to the conversation. Disclaimer: I am a white guy, so I obviously do not have the race burden that non-white people (especially in the US) seem to have, but I do feel that racial differentiation should not exist except in a cultural or medical context, which Emojis in an online message are obviously not.
DanBC 10y ago
Does that chart support the claim that white people don't use white emojis? (It'd be nice if browsers could recognise I'm on a metered connection and thus avoid downloading a 1 MB animated gif that adds nothing to the article.)
- Jaruzel 10y ago
  The chart shows that it's more or less the same across middle skin tones, with the darkest being almost non-existent, and the lightest being quite lower than the median. However, in the text, it says that US twitter accounts are a 4:1 ratio of white vs black, but black people are more active on twitter overall, which skews the results somewhat. It all feels inconclusive to me, and also rather pointless (see my earlier comment).
gambiting 10y ago
"Last year, the hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, debated whether white people can use darker skin tones when sending emoji, or if that amounts to cultural appropriation." This is literally the stupidest thing I read all day. It's an emoji. Why does everything have to be "cultural appropriation" nowadays?
pigpaws 10y ago
leave it to the Atlantic to try to create a racial issue out of screen contrast. Does EVERYTHING have to be explained for political correctness?
k__ 10y ago
lol I never use Emoji... I use :D D: :) O: :\ :( etc. they come race independent since before the Internet...
jbob2000 10y ago
White people don't make their race part of their identity. In fact, those that do are called "racists" or "white supremacists".

8 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

or maybe it's hard to read white on white, so people (unconsciously?) choose something more legible.

No-one is bright yellow, so the default is beautifully race-neutral. I never did see the need for the modifiers, as most of the time, your race is irrelevant to the conversation. If you really must shout out your race, then it should be done constructively and in way that adds to the conversation. Disclaimer: I am a white guy, so I obviously do not have the race burden that non-white people (especially in the US) seem to have, but I do feel that racial differentiation should not exist except in a cultural or medical context, which Emojis in an online message are obviously not.

DanBC 10y ago

Does that chart support the claim that white people don't use white emojis? (It'd be nice if browsers could recognise I'm on a metered connection and thus avoid downloading a 1 MB animated gif that adds nothing to the article.)

Jaruzel 10y ago
The chart shows that it's more or less the same across middle skin tones, with the darkest being almost non-existent, and the lightest being quite lower than the median. However, in the text, it says that US twitter accounts are a 4:1 ratio of white vs black, but black people are more active on twitter overall, which skews the results somewhat. It all feels inconclusive to me, and also rather pointless (see my earlier comment).

gambiting 10y ago

"Last year, the hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, debated whether white people can use darker skin tones when sending emoji, or if that amounts to cultural appropriation." This is literally the stupidest thing I read all day. It's an emoji. Why does everything have to be "cultural appropriation" nowadays?

pigpaws 10y ago

leave it to the Atlantic to try to create a racial issue out of screen contrast. Does EVERYTHING have to be explained for political correctness?

k__ 10y ago

lol I never use Emoji... I use :D D: :) O: :\ :( etc. they come race independent since before the Internet...

jbob2000 10y ago

White people don't make their race part of their identity. In fact, those that do are called "racists" or "white supremacists".