Our Emojis Need to Represent Everyone
A more diverse approving body and a more transparent and inclusive approval process could lead to emojis that better reflect society as it is
Writer and advocate Rhianna Jones was in the midst of emailing some friends one night — signing her message with her usual “insert Afro emoji here” — when she had an “aha” moment. “I decided I shouldn’t have to type that anymore,” Jones says. “We deserve to be seen in our conversations too.” Inspired by the approval of dating app Tinder’s campaign for an interracial couple emoji, Jones started a petition and submitted a proposal for an Afro hair emoji in March 2019.
Jones teamed up with graphic designer Kerrilyn Gibson to design the prototype. “Kerrilyn did wonders to fit as much ’fro as possible in the minute parameters of the emoji dimensions,” she says. “Naturally, Afros come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and textures, but we wanted a design that was definitively and visibly an Afro.”
Emojis have become a touchstone of instant messaging culture, a visual language capturing the zeitgeist of the digital era. They also often express something more succinct and powerful than words. “When it comes to communication, it can be difficult to express the subtleties of emotions in text,” says technology…
