Emojis have surely gotten extremely diverse, from the introduction of different colours, to LGBT and single parents and now joining this soon will be interracial couples.
As per the new Emoji 12.0 there will be a hoard of new emojis comings to iOS, Android around fall this year and among them will be the much talked about ‘interracial couple emoji’.
One of the reasons it is so popular is because Tinder, the global dating app, had been running a campaign since last year to bring about emojis that can full represent modern-age relationships.
It is actually good as an Indian millennial to see something that we all are witness to in reality.
What Was The Campaign?
For a long while, interracial couples had been missing from the emoji game, even though we got representation among LGBT, anatomically correct animals and more.
On 27th February 2018, Tinder announced that they would be launching a campaign to bring this type of a couple into the emoji board.
There’s an emoji for just about everything. But there’s no emoji for interracial couples. Please join @tinder in support of the Interracial Couple Emoji Project. Sign the petition at https://t.co/BsKuv4jLmQ to learn more. pic.twitter.com/iYvhKNV0QS
— Tinder (@Tinder) February 27, 2018
Tinder wanted the Unicode Consortium, the organisation that creates all the emojis we use, to design these new emojis representing different skin tones, genders and couples.
Along with that, the team that created the proposal to do so had Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Jennifer 8. Lee who were responsible for the hijab and other emojis. They stated how “the lack of representation for diverse racial identities is a significant issue in an increasingly globalized society.”
Along with social media campaigns where Tinder asked people to use the hashtag #representlove along with videos and photos of interracial couples, there was also a formal petition created at the change.org site.
Supposedly, as per reports, the emoji will have a couple of different skin tones representing different ethnicities, who are holding hands.
There will also apparently be LGBT representation with interracial women-women and men-men holding hands.
Read More: Did You Know The Double Meaning Of These WhatsApp Emojis?
Why It Is Important?
Visibility is always important, and especially for interracial couples, who have to deal with some stereotypes from the society.
One petitioner stated that, “I’m signing because I’m a black woman crazy in love with a wild red-haired man, and I desperately want to see emojis that represent us!”
Another one explained their reason for signing the petition as, “I want to see people like me and my partner…two women, one black, one white.”
Not only them, but there is also going to be representation for the differently-abled like that of an ear having a hearing aid, deaf person, people in a wheelchair (both motor and manual), signifying a blind person with a probing cane, mechanical arm and leg and even a support dog emoji.
There is also emojis coming of Indian dresses like the sari and along with Hindu symbols like a temple, diya, along with other Indian symbols like an autorickshaw etc.
Some people on Twitter have also been celebrating this decision as being progressive.
Love is all that matters. Glad the petition to get interracial emoji worked! #LoveIsLove #Emoji https://t.co/ft7uwY6pbC pic.twitter.com/qRJ2Fign3n
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) March 6, 2019
They finally made an interracial couple emoji so happy
— tittney spears (@rronnilynn) March 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/MiraazShuvo/status/1102933840937529351
my parents were married in ‘82. No one from either side of the family would show. we’re fully integrated now with even more interracial babies!
— Dontae Mears (@d0ntaeme) March 8, 2019
Sounds strange to say, but I’m so overwhelmed with this emoji-sized gesture https://t.co/HEDX8As1lK
Love is all that matters. Glad the petition to get interracial emoji worked! #LoveIsLove #Emoji https://t.co/ft7uwY6pbC pic.twitter.com/qRJ2Fign3n
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) March 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/_yogirljojo/status/1103020576568836097
Emojis are more important than you would think, being used in common conversation, they reflect the society.
For all people to be able to see themselves represented in this format, shows an acceptance and also normalises them to the common society.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Hindustan Times, VICE, Bustle
Find the blogger @chirali_08
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