Unicode Consortium announces 250 new emoji characters, ethnic diversity not included

Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2014
The Unicode Consortium on Monday announced the latest Unicode Standard version 7.0 release includes 2,834 new characters and -- more importantly to avid texters -- more than 250 pictographs, otherwise known as emoji.



In a post to its official blog, the Unicode Consortium announced the new characters, which include new currency symbols, 23 historic scripts and the widely-used emoji character lineup, along with other assets. The Unicode Standard allows for cohesive implementation of text characters across various software, including platforms like iOS and Google's Android.

Describing the emoji additions, the consortium said most of the new characters are based on those that are long-standing and have seen widespread use in Wingdings and Webdings fonts. As seen above, a few examples were published including a hot chili pepper, Vulcan salute from Star Trek and a thermometer.

A more comprehensive list can be found at Emojipedia, which points to interesting new characters like "Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended," "Building Construction" and "Man in Business Suit Levitating."

Noticeably absent from the list are additions to "people emoji," which recently became a topic of discussion as the current set lacks ethnic diversity. The most widely represented race is caucasian, critics say, while "minorities" are grossly underrepresented.

In March, Apple said it was planning to introduce a more diverse selection of characters in a future iOS release, but failed to pin down an exact date or time range for the upcoming additions. As far as ethnicities are concerned, the latest iOS 8 beta release carries over the same emoji icons from iOS 7.

Apple most recently updated its people character lineup in iOS 6 when the company introduced same-sex couples and families to the mobile operating system's offerings.

It is unknown when the Unicode Standard update will be rolled in to iOS as it is up to platform makers when to include the new assets.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 41
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Oh great. More emoji.

    [SIZE=6] ????????[/SIZE]
  • Reply 2 of 41
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    sockrolid wrote: »
    Oh great. More emoji.
    ????

    Fixed that for you.
  • Reply 3 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    Noticeably absent from the list are additions to "people emoji," which recently became a topic of discussion as the current set lacks ethnic diversity. The most widely represented race is caucasian, critics say, while minorities are grossly underrepresented.

     

    This is really just satire of itself (thanks for including that in the title). 

  • Reply 4 of 41
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post





    Fixed that for you.



    LOL.  But really, doesn't the Unicode Consortium have about 58.7 million archaic Chinese logogram glyphs to add to the Unicode standard?  Or something important like that?

  • Reply 5 of 41
    "Minorities" to mean "non-Caucasian" is probably not the best word. Emojis are used worldwide (whites are the minority) and invented in Japan...
  • Reply 6 of 41
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    As a non-primary-yellow non-spherical person, Emoji have really let me down.

    Insult to injury: I am also a businessman who cannot levitate.
  • Reply 7 of 41
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    "Minorities" to mean "non-Caucasian" is probably not the best word. Emojis are used worldwide (whites are the minority) and invented in Japan...

    Do you mind not calling us 'whites'?

    We prefer to be called 'the Mongoloid/Negroid-challenged'.
  • Reply 8 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by GTR View Post

    Do you mind not calling us 'whites'?

     

    Actually, I demand to be called a person of color, as white is the combination of all colors. Conversely, black people aren't people of color, as black is the absence thereof.

     

    See how foolish the argument becomes when logic and reason are applied? <img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" /> 

  • Reply 9 of 41
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    The official charts just include abstract black and white representations, e.g.

    Emoticons: http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F600.pdf

    Misc. Symbols: http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf

    Everything: http://www.unicode.org/charts/

     

    It's up to individual fonts to render letters with certain styling, or faces with certain colours.

  • Reply 10 of 41
    "Minorities" to mean "non-Caucasian" is probably not the best word. Emojis are used worldwide (whites are the minority) and invented in Japan...

    I've noticed the site has a US-centric use of terms and idioms. The (proper) US-English spellings of words like "rumor" (not rumour) should have given it away. As are use of imperial units of measure such as inches and feet.
  • Reply 11 of 41
    jjthompsjjthomps Posts: 24member
    Screw it and make them all monkeys. Everyone's a monkey and everyone is offended if they consider that to be offensive.
  • Reply 12 of 41
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    Actually, I demand to be called a person of color, as white is the combination of all colors. Conversely, black people aren't people of color, as black is the absence thereof.

    See how foolish the argument becomes when logic and reason are applied? :lol:  

    Depends on your color system: additive or subtractive. In CMYK, white is the absence of color. In RGB, white is the presence of all colors.
  • Reply 13 of 41
    macslutmacslut Posts: 514member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jkichline View Post





    Depends on your color system: additive or subtractive. In CMYK, white is the absence of color. In RGB, white is the presence of all colors.

     

    I was going to say pretty much the same thing, only projective versus reflective.  Since skin isn't projecting light, you'd go with reflective in which case, white would be the absence of color, while black would be a combination of all colors.

  • Reply 14 of 41
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

  • Reply 15 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by jkichline View Post

    Depends on your color system: additive or subtractive. In CMYK, white is the absence of color. In RGB, white is the presence of all colors.

     

    And there's the true crux of the argument: coming up with racial slurs based on these acronyms! 

  • Reply 16 of 41
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jkichline View Post



    Depends on your color system: additive or subtractive. In CMYK, white is the absence of color. In RGB, white is the presence of all colors.

     

    Thanks for reminding us of the pervasiveness of color-prejudice! Not everyone uses RGB. Nor even CMYK.  And out in the natural world, every wavelength is a "primary" color, since each wavelength in the visible spectrum is produced by the sun. It is only our biological apparatus (eyes) that are optimized to perceiving red, green, and blue... and which gave rise to the RGB color system.

     

    But let's not forget about our rods, they perceive light too... but only as a brightness, not as a color.

  • Reply 17 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

    Thanks for reminding us of the pervasiveness of color-prejudice! Not everyone uses RGB. Nor even CMYK.  And out in the natural world, every wavelength is a "primary" color, since each wavelength in the visible spectrum is produced by the sun. It is only our biological apparatus (eyes) that are optimized to perceiving red, green, and blue... and which gave rise to the RGB color system.

     

    Where's a representative from PAWIHE* to call us all bigots? :p

     

    *People for the Advancement of Wavelengths Invisible to the Human Eye

  • Reply 18 of 41
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member

    Is that Bender? 

  • Reply 19 of 41
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    ...The most widely represented race is caucasian, critics say, while "minorities" are grossly underrepresented.

    hmmm...

    Still, I think that's better than being represented grossly...

  • Reply 20 of 41
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,032member

    As people go, it's the presence of pigment and not the absence that defines a "person of color."  People aren't made using a "color system."

     

    I really don't understand why the various race-baiting bigots believe that emoji represent "white people," unless they think "white people" are colored like The Simpsons.  Emoji are an Asian thing.  If they're supposed to represent any group, I'd suppose it would be Asians.

     

    The discussion, and the current state of American society is disheartening as I was raised and educated to understand that racial differences are meaningless and that it's wrong to take race into consideration.  These days, it seems that's all it about.  Racism / victimhood is too much of an industry, too useful as a political tool for our political tools to let it go.

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