Discussion
On a Discord server, I see some people use the non-default emoji for hand signals like 👋 or 👍. I wasn’t aware there were specific skin tones for those: 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏽👋🏾👋🏿 and 👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿.
The thing is, the only specific skin tones I see are the whitest ones, 👋🏻 and 👍🏻, and I find thant disturbing. I’m wondering whether you’d consider this OK in your community?
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@fabi1cazenave I ran a poll years ago related to this. Some of the replies are very informative. https://old.mermaid.town/@futzle/111439675501287472
@futzle Your poll and your comments are very insightful, thanks for sharing them. TIL there *is* a good reason for this use.
> I, personally, use the white skin tone modifier 👍🏻 where it's available. My reasoning is that I need to own my whiteness and acknowledge the privilege that it grants me in society. I don't want the white skin-tone modifiers to become a de facto dog-whistle used only by white supremacists.
@fabi1cazenave @futzle very interesting. I have both Eastern European and Mediterranean/North African ancestry, so I don’t really identify as a definite color. I’m white where I live, but I’ve travelled to places where I was exotically dark-skinned, and confused with my brother, even though we don’t particularly look alike beyond complexion. Plus I have Jewish ancestry, who of course are non-white for nazis and too white for a lot of lefties 😄😭. So I like using the default Simpsons color.
@fabi1cazenave genuine curiosity, why would it be racist? I could imagine it could be a dogwhistle for signaling belonging to white supremacist communities, has it ever been used like this in the past, or is it too far-fetched?
@fabi1cazenave reading the conclusion of https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10060/8048, one thing comes to mind: this makes it hyper-visible that your community is full of white people. Maybe it could be repelling to some actual or future community members, but if people are accusing the community of racism solely based on skin tone emoji, then all other invisible oppression mechanics have been solved? (i.e., the oppression mechanics would likely be elsewhere in the first place)
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@fabi1cazenave Somewhere between the first two options - I don't use them and I find it questionable when people do, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily racist on its own, but I also wouldn't definitely say it's ok -- it needs more context.