Jaime de Candole
Semiotics and Semantics Would semiotics have to change on some areas ? When asked if semiotics would have to change on some areas, I immediately thought back to the backlash that Apple faced in the months leading up to 2016 for the lack of diversity in their emojis; providing only yellow skin tone for emojis which was seen to resemble only the Caucasian race. Numerous media channels slammed the yellow tone for emojis as “jaundiced”, this adverse reaction had links to the bad reviews that The Simpsons received for their bright yellow characters. The reasoning for The Simpsons yellow hue is down to colour theory, the 213human brain recognises yellow as the “most visible colour” due to the way we process light; making the iconic cartoon characters the most recognizable and memorable. However, Apple did not have such reasoning for their lacking diversification.
How should it change ? At the time of the scandal (2015/2016), it was very apparent to all displeased consumers on how to resolve the problem. It was so clear that Katrina Parrott, a mother in Texas, created an app in which the user could copy and paste emojis of their own skin tone into their messages. Emojis have become “a language in and of itself, and language needs to be inclusive”. After creating the app iDiversicons and getting into contact with Apple about the inclusion of a more diverse range of emojis, Parrott states that the company “left her high and dry” after taking the idea without giving her credit or promoting her app by listing it as a suggested app on their App Store. With Katrina Parrott suing apple for copyright of the idea, her lawyer highlighted that her case is focused on principles arguing that “The woman who was trying to improve inclusion gets excluded”.
Has anything changed ? After consistent criticism about the lack of diversity, Unicode Consortium began creating inclusive emojis of all races and a larger quantity of features e.g hair colour. The five skin tones provided are taken from the ‘Fitzpatrick scale’ that was developed by a dermatologist in 1975 to measure human skin tones and the amount of melanin present before and after being in the sun. On top of the previous lack of variation in the races of the emojis, when including three hundred more emojis in their update, Apple included icons of same sex relationships and families. Although they finally diversified their range of emojis, the prolongation of it did not go unrecognized with both Apple and Unicode receiving complaints.
What would you propose to change some signs ? Despite this subject matter being laughable due to the overrepresentation of light-skinned brunettes in the media, the issue is not as trivial as it first comes across as. In Apple’s range of emojis, when holding down on man or woman to view more options of that emoji, the scale of skin tone progresses with the shade of the characters hair. However, it does not provide an option for a Caucasian brunette. Apple has included an emoji with dark black hair with the palest option of skin colour which is
Jaime de Candole categorizing and following Asian stereotypes. The scale of emojis implies that to be Caucasian you must have blonde or dark black hair, it provides no in between. As I have brown hair, when messaging friends or using emojis in other instances, I use the darker toned emoji in order to portray myself which then implies that I am multiracial when in fact I am not. When deciding between the lighter skinned emoji with black hair or the character with brown hair, off first glance I would choose the brown hair as that emoji was created and used to portray one’s self with their hair colour. Then the issue comes into play of is this misrepresentation of mine digital ‘blackfishing’? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/24/apple-adds-racially-diverse-emoji-andthey-come-in-five-skin-shades https://dermahealthinstitute.com/blog/the-fitzpatrick-scale/ https://www.looper.com/720367/the-real-reason-the-simpsons-characters-have-yellow-skin/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/katrina-parrott-skin-tone-emojiapple-lawsuit/