Haha, emoji's wait a minute.
None of these look like… what?!
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS.
Emoji pictograms were created in 1999 by a Japanese software engineer to be used in Docomo
devices.
The company added the icons to their phones, but no one else had them, so when they texted
non Docomo phones, they got "garbage characters."
That changed when the Unicode Consortium -- the governing body of the computer code behind
text on the world's computers -- adopted emojis too.
Now EVERYONE had to add them, and by 2010 y'all started seeing them on your phones.
Now, Apple is adding racial diversity to their emoji keyboard for iOS 8.3, which is currently
in public beta.
And in the words of Vice President Joe Biden, "this is a big F**king deal."
Emojis might seem like a superfluous part of our technology, but they've become a big
part of how people communicate.
Communication theory suggests that not knowing a word for a thing, makes the thing invisible
to the larger culture -- it's called Linguistic relativity.
If you can't describe it, it doesn't exist.
Race informs everything we do, not because it exists -- its a construct, there's only
one human race: homo sapien -- but because we're social and visual beings.
So using those together…
what's the implication of adding a set of ethnically diverse faces to the emoji keypad?
We've talked before about how video game with avatars of different races, can reinforce
violent racial stereotypes; so what about seeing your skin color?
How does that change our perceptions?
Obviously, science has yet to study THIS advancement, but the study of the impact of human diversity
is widespread; as is the study of what's called "Underrepresentation."
The director of media literacy group MediaSmarts, told Think magazine, "Players who are not
white and male have to essentially leave some of their self behind and take on this white/male
identity in order to participate in [a video game]."
And emojis are very similarly powerful.
It shows that "white is normal," but it's not.
And the more role models and representation otherwise the better people will do.
A study of racial diversity in criminal-justice-related occupations found that when diversity increased,
the punishments for crimes were less racially-driven.
With black and white defendants being punished more equally for similar crimes,.
Plus 1 to Fairness and equality.
In a 2008 study from the Annenberg School for Communication, researchers found a significant
drop in white racial attitudes during and after the successful election of President
Obama.
And another in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found having a successfully
elected role model, reduces race-based gaps in academic performance.
Exposure to other races and role-models equals minus 1 to racism and plus 1 to education!
At least in the United States, diversity is GOING to happen whether we like it or not.
Using data from the 2010 census, the Census Bureau announced that in the next 50 years,
there will be no single largest group.
Instead, by 2020, a majority of the babies born in the country will be non-white, and
what they call a majority-minority population.
More diversity for everyone!
Plus 1 to melting pot?
In the end, "race" might be a thing we've constructed, but if it's visible and in the
open, society is more fair, less racist, more educated, more melty and more powerful.
Sounds like a pretty good place to live and if emojis are one small step in that direction,
let's do it!