Digital blackface…?

[Oldon]

Slight disagreement has broken out in a WhatsApp group I am in.

Someone has repeatedly (over a period of a few months) been using the thumbs up and clapping emoji in a different skin colour to their own, to which someone else has taken offence and accused them of digital blackface.

I am not sure why the person was doing it - whether they thought they were trying to be inclusive or something but they have apologised so I doubt they will do it again.

What do you guys think of this? Is it offensive or are people just being overly sensitive? It has never really occurred to me either way…

That seems a very strong term. When I’ve seen this it seems to come from a place of wanting to be inclusive/woke but it just seems cringy to me

It just seems like an odd thing to do tbh. Who knows what their motivations were?

I have heard of digital blackface in using gifs/memes etc. Not seen it applied to emojis etc.

Sounds like they apologised and wont be an issue again so not sure its worth carrying on.....

We had this thread a few days ago

I'm sorry, people have to be colour swatched now to the emojis they use?

Crikey.

It's a bit weird. I'm black and would find it odd if a white friend did this to me. But I wouldn't do anything about it. Would probably make a daft joke about it and ask them if they'd been on the sun beds to bring it up in a non arsey way.

I purposely use the yellow ones because they’re neutral. Aren’t they?

I recall a similar thread posted not too long ago. 🤔

My dh has a colleague that always does this. Dh has noticed(obviously because he mentioned it to me) but I'm not sure what I would call it other than a bit odd.

Woman neighbour opposite me has a bald black bearded man as her Memoji. She’s a white woman with a very vegan Birkenstock knit your own lentils vibe. I think it’s fucking weird tbh.

I am also a bit eye rolly at any white person who’s bothered to go in and change the thumbs up from yellow to a white skin tone. But I don’t mind at all if a black or brown person changes it to their skin tone. Fully accept that’s that is probably just my own weird issues.

I am also a bit eye rolly at any white person who’s bothered to go in and change the thumbs up from yellow to a white skin tone. But I don’t mind at all if a black or brown person changes it to their skin tone. Fully accept that’s that is probably just my own weird issues.

Completely agree with this and can't explain why! But I guess because the rest of the world has been defaulted to white for so long that I think it's great people of colour have the option of reflecting their own skin tone if they so choose.

I'm white and it's never bothered me to be Simpsons coloured in emojis - there are enough default 'skin tone' plasters, crayons, foundation shades etc in my skin colour in the day-to-day world that my white fragility isn't threatened by emojis 😉

But to OP's point - I would find it odd if a white person was using a different skin colour emoji as their default. The only thing I can think of is that there are some custom emojis that are animated and cycle through the full colour range and maybe it's not working properly?!

This sounds a bit petty, do you need to state your skin tone online now? Ffs. Is it offensive to use the wrong colour plasters? I put a dark toned plaster on a pale skinned child at work the other day cos that was the only one in the shape I needed. I suppose I'm racist now...

That’s a bit different though isn’t it? You needed a plaster and you used one.
The default emoji is yellow which isn’t actually the colour of anyone’s skin. It’s extra effort change it to a different colour. Some people are going to do that because they want their actual skin colour. Others are doing it to change it to a colour that’s not their own, presumably with the intention of showing how inclusive they are. But I do find it slightly rolly.

I remember Ellen pompeo getting a load of hate for using 👍🏿👏🏿 on a twitter post a few years ago.

I'm glad there's no more wars, atrocities and injustices to get upset about so we can focus on the really important stuff.

I find it odd. There's a girl who was on my social media who would use the darkest shade emoji on all her posts, despite being extremely racist (I had no idea of this as she was a friend of a friend), once I found out I removed her and found her use of emojis to add to her racism

One person’s inclusivity is another’s cultural appropriation.

Mmm, I the yellow one because I identify as a Simpson, generally Homer

For the longest time I was giving yellow thumbs up and was stuck as a blond emoji character because I didn’t know how to change it, maybe it was an error?

While I generally think this kind of thing doesn't matter and there are bigger problems re racism, I agree there is something a bit off about white people using black emojis. To me it indicates the white person thinks being black is a joke, like "hahaha isn't it hilarious, the idea that I might be black is so funny because I am obviously not black". Which may not be racist per se, but I can see the parallels to blackface.

Great article explaining what digital blackface is and the issues with it.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a33278412/digital-blackface/

My made up rules are:

Basic smileys - yellow for all
Hands etc - BAME can change their colour, wanky for a white person to.
Little people emojis including hair colour - anyone can change or use default.

OK I get you now. These topics terrify me because I'm not great on technology and am always afraid I might inadvertently do something offensive. I actually have no idea what colour I use but it probably is the default. I'll be more aware in future. If it's done as a sort of tokenism inclusive attempt or some lame attempt at comedy then yes I see why the darker skinned person would be annoyed.

i just keep mine yellow. It saves hassle.

it seems a bit weird to change it to a skin colour that doesn’t match yours but each to their own so long as she meant no harm I wouldn’t give it any more thought.