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…

I am absolutely gobsmacked that a any adult would give this even a second thought.

Unless you ask a person you have literally no idea of their 'intentions' - I put it like that because I suspect most don't have one, they just do it for a change.

I don't think using emoji is digital blackface. Digital blackface is when someone is pretending to be a black person online and speaking from that pov.

There was a picture going round some years ago that illustrates it. I can't find it now but it showed a white man at his desk typing "As a strong black woman, I think we talk about racism too much" on a forum and his profile picture was that of a black woman.

This tweet also say something like that, gotten from Twitter and co-signed by Yvette Nicole Brown, the US actress.

twitter.com/YNB/status/1640079804455350272?lang=en

DGF may have moved on to include other things though, as usual.

Forgot to add the tweet screenshot.

I don't really get why people think it's bad for white people to change theirs from yellow but not black people. There's no logic to that. White people are not yellow, so what's the difference?

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.

On my phone it doesn't default to yellow. The first time I used thumbs up or wave etc it gives me a choice of which to use, hopefully the screenshot has attached. I don't select Simpsons yellow, just the nearest to my colour.
Possibly the same for any white people you are eye rolling at for not having a yellow emoji.

I always use yellow/default, but I think it's a bit strange to find it wanky or obnoxious for a white person to opt for skin tone emojis that somewhat match their own natural skin colouring. If it's okay for one to want to customise, why not all?

On the other hand, choosing a colour that's obviously very different from your own is rather odd, imo. I'd wonder why, but wouldn't ask, much less challenge them on it.

I didn't know you could change the colour but I haven't got a clue what half the emojis mean anyway!

I'm not offended by it in the slightest, but I do find it very strange when white people don't change it to white.

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

yeah, those are pretty much my thoughts as well 🤷🏻

I think it's weird to have anything other than yellow or your own skin tone. I don't feel any way about white or black people choosing the emoji of their skin tone.

But like all these things, it starts out as something completely reasonable and is expanded into something utterly ridiculous. The speed at which this is able to happen via social media is fucking incredible.

People need to get a life.

I would not purposely charged the skin colour of the emoji to be inclusive. That person either made a mistake or is a fool doing that to be inclusive. I also would not be offended but I am not in the position to judge. However, it seems that the more people try to please the perennially offended generation the more stupid things get.

Every day's a school day here.

I never even knew there was any choice but yellow

Really struggling to see why white people using their own skin tone is wanky?

Weird hang up to care about white people changing their emojis to white.

I use the yellow emoji because I don’t feel the need to advertise my race via emoji, but I don’t care if others want to use those that reflect their skin tone, whatever colour that may be.

The sort of worthy thinking that “permits” any ethnicity to use true skin tone emojis except white people drives division and extremism. It isn’t helpful.

The sort of worthy thinking that “permits” any ethnicity to use true skin tone emojis except white people drives division and extremism. It isn’t helpful.

It's also incredibly patronising. Which strikes me as a sort of racism itself.

Reminds of me when a white person had an avatar in the game Animal Crossing that had a black person hair style.... they got slaughtered on social media and even threatened.

Are they actually white? Could they be mixed and you don't know about it?

I had to smile at my 75yo fil's new avatar, my fil is Celtic white, so typically very pale, his avatar looks Southern Asian. He doesn't mean anything by it and wouldn't offend anything for the world, but he would have chosen it because he just likes it. It doesn't always have to mean something.

This reminds me of those threads where someone posts about an 'incident' of sorts which caused some disquiet between a group of friends or family to do with something ostensibly offensive. My favourite among these threads are the type which attempt to spark debate over whether using curry powder is 'cultural appropriation' or if wearing a sari given as a gift is 'offensive' to people who traditionally wear said clothes.

Much like the notion of digital blackface in your OP - such a concept is very real but if it can be reduced to disagreements about the colour of emojis over WhatsApp messages then you reveal it to be a very silly concept indeed, conveniently ignoring a very specific form of racism. This type of technique isn't unique to Mumsnet, I've seen it play out mainly on social media but it's an interesting phenomenon nonetheless.

I don’t think you’ll find that all of the world is “defaulted” to white. Predominantly black countries for example are not going to be defaulted to white.

That's a very good point - apologies. I'm in the UK so that's shaped my experience!

Digital blackface isnt pretending to be black online.......

Such a stupid thing to say. Just because something horrible is happiness somewhere in the world it doesn't mean people should only be able to talk about that.

Some people ar capable of thinking or having an opinion about more than one thing. You should try it.