A new yellow face emoji developed by Apple for its racially diverse line of icons, to be released, is offending several people in the Asian community. As Inquisitr just reported, Apple has come up six different skin tones in their technology for texts and emails that reflect racial diversity.
The Washington Post reports that social media is going crazy over the yellow-hued emoji supposedly meant to represent Asians. This isn’t going over well with those those in the ethnicity because it’s a historical stereotype that is often considered racist and highly offensive.
The report makes a strong point in revealing that the yellow face emoji isn’t representative of Asians at all. Alternatively, it’s meant to be “ethnically neutral;” a bright yellow color from the days when AOL used its emoticons.
Arguments of this is based on the Fitzpatrick’s Scale, which is what dermatologists use to classify skin types. This is the reference Apple is leaning on for face emojis. The yellow hue on Fitzpatrick’s Scale is considered “neutral,” and that Asians can be any number of skin variations. These would fall under the classifications of Type III to Type V on the scale.
Additionally, Apple doesn’t want people to view emojis as icons, Washington Post writes. Instead the tech company wants users to view them “as actual representative stand-ins for real human people.”
Yahoo! writes that iMore Editor, Rene Ritchie , explains in an email that the new yellow face emoji is NOT racist.
“Bright yellow as the default made no sense if it was meant to represent a skin tone. No single skin tone would make sense if diversity was the goal.”
Still, the debate rages on. Especially when other skin tones seem more accurately represented. In large part, a variation exists for lighter-to-darker skin tones.
A total of 300 new icons will be available for the next iOS update, which is scheduled for later this year. This will also include various icons representing different family unities, such as same-sex couples. Thirty-two new country flags will be released, as well.
Even with the hiccup in Apple’s big announcement on Monday, many are excited for the new iOS update. Last year, the company revealed it was working on emojis with racial diversity, but it would take some time to complete.
It’s hard to know if such intense opposition to the new yellow face emoji will get a makeover before it accompanies the others for Apple’s release.
[Photo Credit: Rene Ritch/Twitter]
