A new online petition accuses Apple of having racist smiley icons known as Emoji. It notes the lack of faces of color, other than yellow.
“If you look at Apple’s Emoji keyboard, what do you see? Two different camels. A smiling turd. EVERY PHASE OF THE MOON,” it reads. “But of the more than 800 Emojis, the only two resembling people of color are a guy who looks vaguely Asian and another in a turban. There’s a white boy, girl, man, woman, elderly man, elderly woman, blonde boy, blonde girl and, we’re pretty sure, Princess Peach. But when it comes to faces outside of yellow smileys, there’s a staggering lack of minority representation.”
The author acknowledges that Apple doesn’t own the Japanese icons but points out that the company has made changes to be more inclusive in the past, citing the iOS6 update that added a same-sex couple. The hope is that Apple’s iOS7 update will add at least “four faces with some melanin: a man, a woman, a boy, and a girl.”
