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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   33983 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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I thought this was a solved problem with the Simpons-style cartoonish yellow skin color that is not within the range of typical human skin tones. Late stage jaundice patients not included.

I take it you missed the dialogue about that solution? If you're wise you'll remain ignorant and stop reading this comment now.

Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Wired tried to explain that although "some white users worry that calling attention to their race by texting a pale high five (or worse, a raised fist) might be construed as celebrating or flaunting it", "The yellow emoji feels almost like claiming, “I don't see race,” that dubious shibboleth of post-racial politics, in which the ostensible desire to transcend racism often conceals a more insidious desire to avoid having to contend with its burdens."

And NPR let you know that, although "some white people may stick with the yellow emoji because they don't want to assert their privilege by adding a light-skinned emoji to a text", "there was a default in society to associate whiteness with being raceless, and the emojis gave white people an option to make their race explicit", so even if you're "just exhausted [from] having to do that. Many people of color have to do that every day and are confronted with race every day" - so is it really fair for you to get to ignore it?

Indeed, "the default yellow is indelibly linked to The Simpsons, which used that tone solely for Caucasian characters (those of other races, like Apu and Dr. Hibbert, were shades of brown)."

(No mention of the other characters who were non-Caucasian and yellow or lighter, for some reason.)

My favorite is when I see people at work using emoji with a shade notably different than their actual shade. I've seen indians using the "nearly translucent" white shade and light skinned arabs using the "nearly pitch black" dark shade.

Tons of the emojis I see used at work are varying shades of brown, completely unlike the actual people who populate the office.

It's an odd choice, because you have to actually select the skin tone modifier. The default is emoji yellow.

Some of the darker-skinned non-white people at my office have made a reasonable attempt to match skin tone. I think all the white people (regardless of actual skin color) are using the default.

The Indian one at least has an explanation of "Indians idolize white skin and see it as perfect," AIUI.

Reminds me of 4chan joking about Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

20th century Indian scientists want to create the perfect man

They make a white Spaniard

I mean they're clearly wrong. The yellow smiley face came way before The Simpsons and was the basis for emoticons/smileys before they became emojis.

You mean it dates back to the days when the United States was 90% white? Something tells me activists would spot a problem with that almost immediately.

Emoticons perfected the usefulness of small image addendums to communication and emojis enshitified them over and over and over until we have have the dumbass garbage we have now where it wants you to put an emoji of groceries after you just wrote groceries. Though there's probably still an argument to be made that emoticons/smilies were not necessary either. There's a part of me that finds anything beyond simple ASCII smiles or winks obnoxious now. I think that stupid clapping shit with emojis between each word pushed me over the edge into hating what they've done to communication.

I mean in exclusively the technical sense, but you're a scrub. Effective emoji use is associated with better social outcomes. (Low quality study but I'm being lazy since I don't think you'll disagree with me.) Emojis are the new midatlantic accent are the new cockney rhyming slang. Their aesthetic qualities are totally irrelevant-- what matters is that their effective use signals charisma and social status.

Gen Z is speedrunning the history of written language, starting from hieroglyphics

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