Illustrated by Ly Ngo.
Yesterday, we reported about a giant leap backward for emoji, when the first-ever emoji trailer hit the web. But, we're happy to rectify that today with a huge win for the miniature graphic symbols that color our lives. Apple is in the process of developing a set of ethnically diverse emoji after criticisms from influencers like Miley Cyrus and Tahj Mowry pointed out that emoji are, well, just too white.
Apple was first made aware of the criticism when MTV reached out directly to CEO Tim Cook. Because Cook probably has his hands tied with the iPhone 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, he forwarded the e-mail to Apple's vice president of worldwide corporate communications Katie Cotton. "We agree with you," Cotton wrote back almost immediately. "Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”
Apple has yet to set a date for when the multicultural emojis will be available, but this is no doubt a huge sigh of relief for socially conscious emoji addicts everywhere, us included. All the smiley faces in the world go to Apple. (Dazed and Confused)