People of color not represented in the “family” and “couple” categories for emojis

[Colorincluded]

I’ve been a Fitbit user for a few months now, and I like the product. However in preparing a post a couple of months ago that pertained to people of color in the “family”category, I noticed there was No representation for people of color. What’s interesting is that there is a range from light to dark faces for mostly every other category.  For instance, if you select a single person emoji, there is a range from light to dark faces. However, if you select a “family” or “couple” emoji, there is No light to dark face range there is only the light face.  The people of color emojis in the “family” and “couple” categories do not exist!!  I was really shocked to see this type of exclusion be so blatant in today’s society where there is so much training on diversity....I recently wrote to Fitbit, Inc , regarding this issue and  their response to me was it’s not their fault it’s Apples, Inc fault because they (Apple, Inc) did not design such emojis in their entire operating system!! I thought “wow” that’s even a bigger issue thsn I originally thought, and I will also address this too with Apple, Inc.  But as for FitBit, Inc, since as a customer/user I brought it to their attention, it is my expectation of them that they would be at least have a conversation with Apple, Inc regarding this matter since it impacts (excludes) a specific demographic of people who are major users and supporters of not only FitBit, Inc , but also Apple, Inc as well  This is a major oversight on both Apple, Inc and FitBit, Inc., and it is my hope that this situation can be resolved in the most expeditious manner as possible. Thank you!!

[N8teGee]

It's correct what Fitbit say, the emojis are tied to your operating system, so in your case it would be Apple who are responsible. The same can be said of my Android phone, although myself being a person of colour, its not something I'm really worried or care about.

I'd much rather they spent their time and resources fixing the endless issues with the Ionic. 

[Colorincluded]

Thank you for your post. But it does make me feel some type of way that we are represented in the single person category but not the family unit as if people of color do not have family units. To me it’s shows insensitivity and yes I’m aware that it’s Apples issue but Fitbit could have raised it to Apple’s awareness. These devices cost a lot of money, I just believe in being fair to every user.  No it may not be a huge issue to some, but it’s these types of suttleties that start small but develop into something bigger. The issue is that it’s clear that people of color were excluded in two prominent categories. I could understand if it was just one particular group, but it’s every family and couple category. That speaks volumes to me; and I would hope that it would speak the same thing to others. This is not rocket science--it should be a very simple fix!!

[Colorincluded]

Pardon the typos. But all I’m saying is what’s the message here? It may seem small but it bothered me and that’s enough for me to say something. You’re right there are other issues with the device, but this particular issue is larger than just with the device. And yes I plan to contact Apple, Inc. regarding the matter. Thank you!!!

[WavyDavey]

I'm surprised Apple hasn't heard of this yet?

[SunsetRunner]

We are all the same colour at the start, it's just that some got more sun than others did. 🙂

[Colorincluded]

yes I agree but it's very interesting that some people go to  great lengths to make sure to exclude certain groups of people (namely people of color) from positive considerations like the family and couple oriented categories.   This emoji matter is clearly an issue of exclusion no matter how you look at it--it's blatant. 

[Colorincluded]

Thank you!!!

[bbarrera]

@Colorincluded I think you need to consider that Apple was in front of diversity and inclusion. The technical standard is handled by the Unicode Consortium. Blended families are not easily implemented by a single race/color... are you proposing a simple solution to the exclusion of all the blended families I know?

[WavyDavey]

I don't think that's what she is saying. From the post, you can select a single person of varying skin tone, but if you select family, there are only light skins to choose from.

It's so tone deaf an implementation to not foresee what that says about family, that I'm genuinely surprised.

[Colorincluded]

Thank you for the explanation.  This is exactly what I'm saying.  I don't understand how adding the scale with varying colors from light to dark for the family and couple categories is that difficult.  If this is the standard, I'm very surprised that it was accepted by such a large scale organization. In addition, if this is the standard, I don't understand why Fitbit did not provide me that type of explanation. 

[bbarrera]

Apple lead the way on emoji diversity. Here is an excerpt from the current standard:

Not sure, seems there is a technical issue to be resolved? If I understand, the standard only allows one modifier?

Source:

https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Diversity

[bbarrera]

---

wrote:

It's so tone deaf an implementation to not foresee what that says about family, that I'm genuinely surprised.

---

Apple was mocked when it released diversity emojis before the rest of the industry, including ability to change skin color and non traditional families.

Hate for Apple runs deep in the tech world, go ahead and take your shots at a company that embraces diversity. 

[Giampi71]

I honestly can't understand the issue: on my android 8.1 all emojis are yellow, really yellow hence they do not identify any particular race or skin tone.

[N8teGee]

Yes the standard emojis on my android phone all have yellow skin too, just like the Simpsons. Although on the single person emoji, you can long press to bring up a shade/colour of your choosing. The problem with doing so on the family emoji is that there are families with members of different colours and races, like my own. I guess the technical limitations are how one would choose for example a white father, black mother and mixed children from just a long press of the icon.

I agree with the point about Apple leading the way on this. 

[Colorincluded]

Thank you for the response. but if the case is that they can't do it for all, then perhaps they should not have the the couple and family emoji categories for any color or perhaps just a darker shade... another color instead of the one "light" color. its still a clear exclusion of behalf of the families and couples for people of color.  Having a variation selection would be a step in the right direction to include the most of the couples and families of color instead of including just one. so what this says if I need a family emoji to represent a family of color, I'm to use the one that looks nothing like my family? hows that representation? I recognize the sensitivity when it come to multiple races in families however, the fact that there is  range for single people but no range for families of color is about the exclusion of a prominent group (people of color). it would be nice if there was at least an attempt to correct this issue. I know its not going to capture all of the different scenarios of families and couples, but at least they could include something that provides a positive selection (range ) in a very important category to me and most people of color (families and couples ). 

[Colorincluded]

actually there are ranges for all emojis with the exception of the family and couple's  category. 

[bbarrera]

Yes, and the family/ couple look “gold” to my eyes and unrealistic. As per the standard:one simple solution is to make family/couple emojis blue. 

Now back to Fitbit, how about showing photos and full set of emoji in notifications?