Proposed emoji changes would bring racial diversity to smiley faces

Fully agreed.

I don't see what all the fuss is about. Guys it's just color. Chill out and enjoy it.

Why is this so ridiculous?  Why does this offend anyone?  No where did I read you must select a color?  So what if they are enhancing it to add colors.  SO WHAT?!!!  Is this someone taking away your lunch money?  It is saying you're going to be homeless?  Is it saying your going to contract some disease?  Why such outrage over nothing?  How is this going to make anyone less than who they are now?  How does this impact your life for better or worst in anyway?  Damn.  What the heck is happening in this world when people get all bent of shape for something they don't even have to use.  I wonder back in the day if people screamed and moaned when they introduced black beer?  :)

The problem isn't that there is an enhancement being made, that's fine. The problem is that we live I a society where we need to change the current, race neutral, cartoon smiley faces to be a bunch of different races so that people aren't offended.

You can see the only ones bitching about this are whites, this is the true meaning of "WHITE ENTITLEMENT" to get mad that they are allowing the option of changing white emoji to black, Asian, and Latino. The outrage, how dare do these brown skins and yellow skins have the option of using an emoji that looks like them!

Current emojis aren't white, they are yellow. And by that reasoning, white people, like myself, could demand white emojis. And why would anyone need an emoji that looks like them by the way? They are meant to express emotions, hence the name, skin color doesn't have to do anything with it.

@Gary Williams 1 Notice how you can get away with racism though. And thats the double standard. If someone had said: "Notice the only ones bitching about this are blacks, this is the true meaning of "BLACK ENTITLEMENT", to get mad that..." How would that have gone down? But no, as you are black you can be as racist as you please. Dispicable. Not for W Central. I don't mind if there are multi colored emoji, but it does seem a little pointless. A smile is a smile regardless of what skin tone expresses it. Just logically speaking its a waste of effort, but its not gonna hurt anyone either. So whatevs. Now please stop being racist against white people. Theres a good boy.

I don't understand why so many people are having a fit over this. If you scroll down the list on your WP, the emoji that look like the ones in this article are white. 

@hwangeruk I understand what you're saying and I'm not disagreeing with you but when white ppl say that everyone immediately thinks racism and slavery. When black ppl say it... Its just funny (most of the time)

What planet are you from? People from all walks of life CAN have a sense of entitlement. It's not a race thing. It's an upbringing thing. I'm glad my parents taught me to judge someone based on their character. Skin is skin. It's an organ. We are all at least 50th cousins. We all evolved from a common ancestor. Get over it. The universe is big but the stupidity of the human race might keep us from ever reaching the stars. Good luck and Godspeed.

+1020 (can't upvote since I'm on the mobile app)

Actually that comment right there is why this is a bad idea... Next thing one skin toned group will be up in arms because theirs isn't the default, and you'll get all kinds of crap on twitter because of using the wrong tone in a text and suddenly it's racist etc. This is just inviting a whole new level of skin tone rage that has been avoided thus far because the emojis are a generic yellow that hasn't got any race implications attached.

That's already what's happening, right. Scrool down the list of emoji on your WP. They're white.

Hmmm so it would seem there is further down in the list... I hadn't noticed, but then I barely use the yellow ones anyway because so many email systems etc still don't recognise them so I mostly stick to the text based ones... So that raises another point - perhaps getting support for what's there already to work across systems is what they should waste their time on - Apple clients are the worst offenders now for not showing them - before expanding the choices further and adding what will be another whole lot of grief to come.

Disagree.. I just think that racial segregation is bad.. And part of that segregation is making things overly unique. Fine if you want your own special smiley. What if I wanted one that offended you? Not that I would, but unique is unique which is what Hitler tried to do. I think its to much. And yes I am a white dude, well actually kinda beige with a hint of creamy undertones.

Lol!... OMG❗❗ wow.

I don't think they are being as racist as they are selfish.. They don't understand, which is why they should listen up instead of sounding inconsiderate.... The perfect example for them to understand is that when they get married they reach for the white weeding cake figurine, not the black... This is the same thing..

Good observation Garry.  lol

@Garry Williams1 Well let's hope they make a racist one with a giant chip on his shoulder just for you Garry.

I think this is stupid and I'm Indian. Putting the fact that there are so many races puts it in your face, that no you arent a human being 1st, you're an Indian/African Origin/Asian/White person then human.
This full racism matter has been blown out of proportion and only because some dicks a few centuries ago in America felt its okay to enslave people. EDIT: if it seems like im ignorant of the racism in America, No. Im just saying its time we stop seeing people by colour. By doing this we just enhance that fact.

Exactly. Doing this only further distances us as humans, and only serves to separate us further. I day dump all graphic emoji and return to text only. Or make them all either green, blue, or purple, some color that doesn't represent any race, so that we will all be represented the same. That is true equality. When I look at people, I don't look at the color of their skin. I want to get to know them by their character.

You do know Latino isnt a type of person right? they can be of any race they just have to speak a latin derived language to be labeled that dumb term so when talking about race please dont use that made up term the U.S. made or hispanic... but i see your point everyone gots different prefrencess on this kind of stuff so if some people want it to so be it not a problem with me to be honest

I hear you. But to my point.  I'll ask the question again... How in the big scheme of things does this possible change affect anyone?  How?  Some people here are acting like it's sometype of aversion against them.  Why is that?

You ask how does it affect anyone? The real issue is how it opens up more possibilities of abuse, racial disparaging, and serves only to divide us further by a mindset that we are separate races of color instead of all part of a single human race. How about we just judge one another by the size of your big toe. Makes as much sense.

So, you're saying that we should get rid of "black" greeting cards?... Black wedding cake figurines❓ Those are stupid?.... Did you use a brown colored figurine on your wedding cake? Yeah, I'm sure you wife allowed that..

Hahaha❗❗❗

Uhh. The emojis are very clearly white people unless you think this is JUST yellow smileys they are replacing.

I'm not offended, but I think this is a waste of time. No one ever complained about the color of the emoji so why do they have to change it now? I'd rather have them add new emojis or focus on something more important.

Yeah cause minorities don't complain like whites over things like this, so what if they adding a little color...why are you so mad.

Well, I'd rather them bring back the old emoji function.  I hate the way it works now in 8.1.  Before I could select as many emojis before going back to my text.  Now I hit one emoji and it automatically takes me back to the text!  I hate that!  :) So, we somewhat agree. They should focus on putting the functionality back the way it was... lol!  :)

You can change that. Go to "advanced" in keyboard settings. Second option, uncheck the box.

+1

Lol!!!! No one ever complained about the color? How do you know?... I've always felt weird using pink little thumbs up to express myself.. Now, how would you understand that?.. You think it's petty?... Easy for you to say.

Seriously, I thought you were smarter than this. You do know that when you send an emoji that it is not your picture, right? It is just a graphic representation of words like rofl or lol. It is not actually you.  What next, change the emoji of houses to include huts or igloo? Maybe the slice of pizza should become a chicken wing. Hey, let's give the racists all the tools to really mess things up. Dummy.  PC gone way wrong.

Did you actually read this article, and see how harmless this function is... If so, then you are THE most closed minded person in the history of the universe... And, that closed mindedness sits right beside racism in the pit of fear.... SMH.

I am closed minded? LOL.  I am racist? You're the one supporting inserting race into my texting! What is sad is, you mean well. However, you clearly are a checkers player. You do not play chess at all. If you did, you would see seven moves ahead and know where this is heading.  Just one example. How do you react when a white person sends you an emoji with a black face? Is he racist? Is he making fun of you? Clearly he is not black. How do you know he doesn't prefer the black emoji? Or now everybody has to find their skin tone and only use said emoji? Why? We don't have enough trouble in the real world that now I have to worry about the emoji I send?

I could care less about race..!... I want to be able to choose the color of my choice, and others obviously want to as well.. Get over it!
.........
Nobody ever said that you are racist.. But, you making a big deal about others expressing themselves, no matter how insignificant YOU may think it is, is making you seem like it now... But, yes, YES, you are definitely closed minded, and there's no convincing me otherwise.... Like I said,, get over it, and just use the damn color you want.... Pretty much all of my friends are white, and they probably are some racist bastards, but would never say the dumb things you just said... And I don't give a damn what color they send me.... Where are you from? The Appalachians I'm thinking...
...................
Dumbest thing I've ever heard... "what if a white person sent you a black one?"""...... Who TF cares?.... You really are a nut case... SMDH.

I don't think you really get what "close minded" means. Being open minded doesn't mean that you automatically accept as good every idea that comes up. LOL. And wow, you wouldn't care if a black faced emoji was sent to you under any circumstance? Well then, you are right, this is a great idea!!!! I am sure everybody in the world feels the same way.  Carry on, nothing to see here!

Actually, yes, they did. The fact you don't know is hilarious

it is rediculus because emoji icons are yellow BECAUSE of that issue. you see, the skin color you have chosen on you text message will be taken into account by the one that you are talking to. you don't want that but it will happen and you know, these are just comments on a remote website, no one here is planning a crusade. your retorical questions about being homeless and lunch money are invalid

What issue? This shit is funny! Who gives a crap if its red, yellow, green, or black?!!! I don't!!! What difference does it make? It seems to me those with "thin" skins are the ones wanting to make an issue where there is none. I just don't get it. Tell me where its written that you must use any color than yellow if you don't want to? Please show me and highlight it so I don't miss it. Sheesh.

So freaking agree with you.

Such an overkill...

Seriously. Or, humanity could put its energy into moving us all forward instead of enabling the perpetuation of this kind of crap that's holding us back. But this is good too, I guess.

Holy crap. This is too much.

No, I'm black, and it's weird using white characters, and hands... It doesn't make sense.
........
Ask yourself what if they were all Black, or dark skinned right now... ❓❓

They're yellow, not white.

Yeah, I don't get this...

Yeah. But lets stop sugar coating it... We know what they represent... I would love to be able to set my color for emoji.. What's wrong with that?
...........
And, why would anyone have a problem with it? You don't.. Do you?

It's funny how so many claim this is politically correctness or whatever, but they are the ones getting all uptight!  :) Can you believe some of these people are whining because of a proposed changed to the emojis.  They are acting like its a crime against them.  They are trying to force their hidden bigotry on other people but they are the ones upset about the possible enhancement.  As if someone at Microsoft couldn't come up with an idea saying what do you think about this enhancement.  Stuff like this makes me laugh.  And not in a ha ha kinda of way.  :/ I remember when you could only type on a computer with only "black" font.  Then it was enhance with color fonts.  Did all these immature people scream about that?

They are spoiled, and don't understand, which is what makes them sound uncompassionate... Bringing up things like "lets put money into fixing real issues"..... That's such a cop-out argument... So week.

I think you need calm down or get a better perspective on life bro. It is an emoji. It is color neutral. They are bringing race into it. And now.... you are hear yelling incoherent garbage.  I cannot, right now, tell you what the color of the emojis are to save my life. Know why? Because it was NEVER an issue for me. And if you knew what the color was and it was an issue for you, I hate to break it to you but you have deeper insecurities than you care to admit.... You might wanna seek help for that. 

Thanks for the therapy session... Yeah, you're right Apple, and Google, are proposing this all because my insecure ass...
........
Right now would be a good time for you to sit back and think to yourself "maybe there's something I don't understand, so I'd better stay neutral instead of possibly falsely insulting someone's intelligence, and their rights to ask for differentiation.... Yeah, it's just me that thinks this is a good idea.. Just me. Ok.
........
Why do people like you like to block these things? Can't you just not use it? The option is there, so what's your problem with me selecting a brown icon for me, and a pink girl for my girlfriend with the couple emoji❓ does that bother you? Because I think it would be cool.. I'd actually like to send her that right now... But, things like that bother you, and you're saying I'm the one who needs to get a new perspective on life❓❓ SMH. Pathetic little trolls like you.

No problem rod. Maybe, me as a white, is less likely to note any differences because I haven't lived life as a colored folk? Idk.

Colored folk? You sound stupid as hell, it's not 1964!

Not half as stupid as referring to yourself as black, when in fact you are a shade of brown :) Does it all really matter? People should not define themselves by their skin tone. But thats humans for you. Caught up in emotion and pointless endeavour. Like commenting on W Central really then :)

We're talking about reality, dude... I'm not talking about emotions, political correctness, and love, and peace.... It's about personal preferences....
........
And, I live here in Dallas, Texas... White people call me black, I call them white, and nobody has time to care about that... The fact is that we ARE all different, and instead of that old post civil rights way of ignoring it we should be embracing it, and teaching people that it's a good thing... We are animals just like any other, and we have differences, so this idea is actually good......
............
We're all the same.. Lol! BS❗ I want my darker thumbs up emoji so I can express myself better... Isn't that what they are there for❓❓
............
What a boring world to live in... Everyone's the same.... I always hated that idea, and it's not physiologically true...

Ok, then get your wife one of those "ebony" gift cards for Christmas then... Yeah, I think we all deep down agree with this... You just don't know how you "take advantage of choosing" these kinds of things everyday.... Let people have their choice too, and don't interfere with it... Well, this is American... I'm not sure where you're from.

How about United Negro College Fund, asshole? I was being polite, not now.

Is there a United White ..... Never mind... Just being an ass... Not a bigoted one. Here in Nova Scotia we have a Black Cultural Society. Thank god we got rid of the School for Coloured Children. I'm white.. Or beige isn't that a colour? But seriously what's wrong with our current smilies? Not that I use them much.

They feel weird when some of us use them. That's all.. It's not so much the smiles that bather me, it's those pink hands.. I think it would be cool if I can choose brown hands.... It's like, those aren't my hands.. You know what I mean❓

Colored folk??? LMFAO❗❗❗

I wouldn't care a bit. No one expects emoji to be lifelike (the current coloring scheme is race neutral since no race actually looks anything close to colors they use now). What WOULD be annoying is to have to select a color before sending... I guess of they let us pick a default color and have it never ask again its ok but still seems like a waste of time.

They could let us set defaults in settings.. That would be nice..

Rodders - clearly you don't use emoji things at all. If you did, you'd know they weren't white....they're yellow!

I totally see Rod's point. Look at it this way: The Simpsons are all yellow, but what race is implied?
Before someone says it's not the same thing, it is actually.
There's nothing wrong with adding a little diversity to reflect the world in which we live.

ISIS, Ebola, $10 trillion of national debt...
....AND....racist yellow emoji's.
Come on! Why is money and resources being spent on such pointless shit.
These are the kind of things we should worry about when all the big things in this world have been fixed.

Dude.. Just because we have problems in this world doesn't mean that we're going to stop progressing every where else.... Besides.. That's the dumbest argument ever, and it never holds water... For example, if you feel so strong about tackling "real" issues then what are you doing with your extra time, money, and resources, to help fix these issues? Please.. Ok.

Very OPEN MINDED point... Of course you can never rely on the majority to think for themselves as you have..

Do I look yellow, muther$uck##❓❓
... In Samuel L. Jackson's voice... Lol❗❗❗

Nope, I'm black too... this is pointless. It turns something that is racially non-descript into something that specifically highlights race. Not inherently bad, but entirely unnecessary for people who don't care... like me.

Yup, and it makes easier for racist people to express their racism.. BAD BAD idea all around, IMO.

Then don't use it.. Because YOU don't care about something means that it shouldn't be implemented❓

It's a solution to a problem that doesn't need fixing.
No one ever considered emoji's to be racist....until today!

Whoever said anything about racist?. You mean that's your first perception of this?...
.......
No, it's more about personal preferences, and I don't see why YOU would have a problem with someone different than you having choice... Do you see how that sounds?..

Well, really, the only colors defined are white and black, and that only because back in the dot com days web pages could potentially hide the emoji's depending on the background color. The yellow we have now on our phones is just an interpretation of white

But they're yellow. Well, most of them. We should make them blue. That way the Smurfs also get represented :P

This will kill emoji altogether for many people because of political correctness involved and the risks of being misunderstood.

Political correctness gone absolute tits up.

Was just going to comment on the PC issue.. Tits up.. Hahaha!

Agreed. /sadfacepalm

Idiocracy.

That makes two of us

I always liked the use of yellow, because it doesn't really represent a racial profile. Isn't equality what everyone claims to want?

Bingo! This is nothing more than political correctness run amok once again.

Precisely.

That's what I said below. Yellow was offensive?

Well, now we are adding race to something that didn't have race. We are just that smart and progressive.

Most emoticons tend to be yellow and race free. On the other hand if you have iphone the icons are not yellow, but represented by little white people. I believe since there is such a huge user base of iphone users in the USA, someone probably made a comment and apple instead of changing their emoticons to be more neutral feel like it's easier to fix it by creating a whole generation of emoticos. Apple:
Windows
Android I always used emoticons to express emotions (as the name read: emoji ~ from emotion). Google is jumping on board. I for one rather have more expressions or more icons than a "RACE" specific icon. If emoticons told stories before, i can't wait to see the racist crap people will be able to come up with for someone's amusement. Solving a problem that wasn't really one to begin with but hey... If it helps them with job creation for committies and designers, then at least something positive will come out of it.

Yeah, its Apples fault. their interpretation of the UTF-8 has come to this.

Ha ha... It's not apple's fault, it's the fault of the people who are sensitive to cartoon representation. It was a never a problem while emoticons were yellow, or animals. It was just after apple's emoticons being so widely used that it caught someone's eye. Could be worst though, just wish they used their resources to come up with better features. But that's just me. :P  

Agree.. Maybe they should make them all mixed.. Lol!

EXACTLEHHH

When in doubt use Simpson yellow. 

Hence the original Lego mini figs yellow colour. Completely race neutral The first skin tone was.. brown.. for an NBA set in the 90s and since then we've just had correct skin tones for the licensed sets. Now we don't see yellow at all. Weird.

unless it's The Simpsons. But I agree, I'm black and never saw then as white, but generic.

This is so pointless just make them yellow like WP and that's that it is not representing any one race. I am all for choices but how much do people really care to add in this blotware

How about a little darker shade of yellow❓❓

What's the problem with the current yellow faces?
EDIT: Apparently, these new emoji characters would be added to the existing ones that represent characters, and not emotions. That's fine.

Because those of us you don't live in Springfield demand representation.

Hahaha! 1-up.

Hahaha, well put.

:)

They're not all yellow.

Well, if they represent people wouldn't they be called avatars?

Having avatar icons would be amazing. It would take your avatar from XLive (or maybe your photo) and sort it out..

Does anyone else find the WP emoji faces really small? I can hardly tell them apart!

Yep

+925 and its small emoji's

Yes its small and also different emotions. Sometimes i send wrong emoji

Yeah...that's happened to me too. I wish all the emojis on WP line up with Apple and Android. I once sent an icon that was a bed on WP to my friend on iOS, and he asked me what happened that I'm in the hospital ;)

Agreed, why can't they be a little bigger?

Yes they are painfully tiny..

This is gonna backfire haha

Seriously... I was about to say that the new emoji is more racist than the traditional ones

BTW, it would decide the hair colour by itself!

You are right. Now, if people decide to use white we gonna have real problems...

Those kkk fans will be pissed to see their emoji is of black skin color gaha

...you're serious? Really?

Good to see all of the internets other problems have been solved freeing up the consortium to work on issues like this.

I know right? lmao im here like hmm forget the whole racial thing, I mean race was never brought into emoji's and now they want to, human progression at its finest lol How about improving how to handle internationalized domain names or improving support for old literature academic scripts that are not yet encoded. idk man I can think of so many other things they can be drafting lol our generation is something else I tell you.

This ruins the point of the yellow emoji and will only cause problems

Uhhhhh... Honestly I've never noticed the skin tone of the emoji. I have way better things to do than obsess over the little cartoons in my text messages. These people need to get a life.

Right now they're Asian lmao

They do look Asian....

Hahaha. Exactlyyy

Why? Because we Asians look the same?? See I can be easily offended too if I want.

Except im just being silly about a stereotype. People say blacks are black and Asians are yellow. But im just kiddin. Kind of a troll moment and id rather not start a troll session. All in fun y'all

I'm offended by your y'all... It should be yarrr

I'm offended by your taking offense! Yarrr

Who would have a problem with this? Seriously. What kind of person would have a problem with letting people select their color?..
........
I could select brown, and pink for me, and my GF.. That would be awesome, and I love the statement that would make.... Who has a problem with that❓

It's the Jews!!!

Lol.

This is ridiculous!!

Next we'll need gender representation. Then, we'll need something for the LGBT community. I think the nondescript yellow smileys are working just fine. Ridiculous

Next would be feminist representation in emojis... This is ludicrous!!

Before you know it the Gelgameks will be demanding representation also!

No no no THIS IS SPARTA!

Don't givem more ideas, damn.

Yet still no moon face. :(

First of all tell me why are they all bald?

Haha!

Racial profiling! I demand they all have long hair, short hair, bald, half bald, dreadlocks, curls, for each type of character dammit!

Why not

Oh my God... How are the yellow faces even offensive? Why the change? They've been like that for as long as I remember...

Because according to Rodneyej, we 'all know what they represent'. 'The Man' i'm assuming. Next up we'll need every hair colour, every eye colour, every age group etc etc just to make sure we don't offend little people with chips on their shoulders.  

Sooooo, they are Asian now or?

Puh-leez! Political correctness run amok once again. The great thing about the yellow smileys is that they aren't the color of ANYONE'S skin, so they're universal.

Well, Asians have kinda yellow skin...

Maybe to the color-blind.

No... Many Asians with light brown/amber skin do resemble yellow emojis (though not bright yellow)

The only yellow people I've seen were babies under the bilirubin light in the neonatal ICU. Oh - and my aunt who died of liver cancer. To say that Asians are yellow only insults them, IMO.

OK...

Wow, that went far fast...The racist stereotype is that Asians are yellow. Its not really true, but that's the stereotype.

Hmmm. So you WANT to push racial stereotypes. Got it. I'm not one for following political correctness, but that's a bridge to far for me.

I've never seen a black person before, neither have I seen a white person before (close but not quite: white albino). The use of the word yellow is just that, the use a word. As for the emoticons, if they were jet black someone would still complain about racial representation despite there not being people who are actually black.

Just wow. White and black are not derogatory. They are descriptive. Yellow is derogatory.

If black is descriptive then I object to being called black because my skin is brown. What makes one colour descriptive and another derogatory? If we use origin (e.g Asian) then everybody should be referred to by origin. If we use colour then everyone should be referred to by colour. Why the distinction?

You've proven you are not worth arguing with any longer. Good day.

Goodnight!

This is so stupid. Emoji's have no race. Why would you want to add ane lement of race into it now?

Then they'd want equal hence representation, too. :/

Lol.

"Emoji's have no race" I'm an Emoji and I find this offensive... :P

Lol

Really??????...wow

Everyone can find a problem where there isn't one...

Truth!

I bet nobody is even going to use this.

The turth has been spoken!!!

I just want the middle finger one.

AGREED!

Lololol

... Because those bright yellow people unfairly represent that race that doesn't exist, of course. What an asinine idea.

Well, some Asians do have yellowish skin. Not bright yellow, but still its like amber colour.

No, don't add fuel to the fire. Not saying you are wrong, just don't give more ammunition.

The only thing we need is a TARDIS emoji.

Really. I mean they are yellow as it is. Really. PC people have to fiddle with emoji...

Yes, let us add race to something that was race neutral. Such a 'progressive' society.

I like yellow emoticons.

Wow... That is incredibly pointless. Just like this comment...

Don't you all understand? this is clearly less racist towards the minions!  

Nice~! Nice diverse change. Anything new is better.

I don't really care about the "racial diversity" part, but it won't hurt to have more colours to choose from.

Finally!

I propose a global registry where we pick the Emoji's that don't offend us and then mandated code on all devices would prohibit people from sending us Emoji's that might offend us. In fact, we need a enforceable global law guaranteeing each of us a right to never be offended. That'll do it...

Lol. What an overkill!!

Next it will be considered a hate crime for using the wrong colored emoji. Seriously, does anybody of any culture or color really give a flyin fig about the color of an emoji? Ridiculous.

I don't think anybody does except those who actually complained.

When I read this article, I thought they were not referring to the general yellow smileys but the section where there are more realistic emojis. In that list, I see: 1 male asian
1 male east indian
~20+ caucasians of various ages, professions, genders, etc. I figured the edits were to allow diversity in these emojis and not the yellow ones everyone here is talking about.

+920 You guessed it.

Eureka, at last somebody has opened their eyes and gets it.

That's what I was thinking. I don't think the proposal is for the yellow smilies, but the actual people ones, that are mostly white. Also, shouldn't be hard to implement on WP. Just the standard tap+hold gesture we're all used to to reveal more character options when using the keyboard. Tap + hold an emoji once updated, and you'll be different diversity options. I'm not sure this is the most pressing issue, but it's not like this update is somehow getting in the way of ending world hunger, so I see no fault with it. Can't hurt anyone or anything, people need to chill out.

"A new proposal drafted by the Unicode Consortium would introduce more racial diversity into the """popular emoji characters used in messages on smartphones""""." I think they are talking about the general yellow ones.

TO EVERYONE REFERRING TO THE YELLOW SMILEYS: There are tons of white emojis that will have the option to change races. I don't think this is referring to yellow smileys as much as you think it is.

Exactly.

The WP emoji keyboard isn't complete, they don't have either of the gay couple emojis that other OSes have

O want a black phone pr perhaps I want a white phone. No instead o prefer brown phone cause I am Hispanic. That is just a wasted of time
if is not broken don't fix it. I love emojis with colors like yellow green blue red but now thinking of use racial color is a wasted of time. Who understand this people

Wow, so yellow faces just can't represent ever one now....what an absolutely ridiculous world we live in.......I do vote though for us to have at least a black/brown or other variations of Santa Claus!!!

This is to much. I'm not trying to edit emojis

Options dont hurt. I mean look at all the emojis below all the yellow smiley faces on the WP options. They all have the same default skin tone color.

I actually forgot there were white people (and hands) below the yellow emoticons until this article. I don't use those much though anyway.

Retarded.

Lmao, I'm black but this is whack. If they do this they better not go back,

Dr Suess called.  He wants his rhyme book back! 

There is only one race... The Human Race... Thanks autocorrect for almost making me send "the hyman race" lol.

This is what I always say, there is just ONE race and it's called the human race, we are all one.

+1

OneRace ... sounds like a nice product

And this is what we spend time on...

Now when someone smiles at me, I can be like, "can you send me a white smiley emoji, all I could see are teeth in that last one." Lol

Well that's a lil' racist...

What is racist?  Acknowledging the visibilty differences between two different skin tones of emoji?  It's a color, not a race.   

So, SOOO typical. Let's fix what isn't broken...
Color this >>> :-/

Well, the draft was edited by Google and Apple.  I'm glad to see MS didn't make that list.  Emoji characters exist to convey an emotion, not a TYPE.  Hence the name, emoji.  Race or colour was never, ever, a factor. 

They have decided that racial difference came with different capacity of having emotions :d

I'd rather just use the faithful :) :p :( and :D Those are the ones I frequently use.

Why do we need this???...such a waste! Add animated emojis & stickers in the default texting app instead!

Thats ignorant

Damn this is pretty stupid.

This is stupidity. Make them blue, and when the Venetians come to invade Earth they can feel welcome. Lets not bring this distasteful 'race' segregation into even emoji's. Respect all people - jeez it's only shades of skin colour - the character of a person is far more important! (If this is what the peoples of Earth are concerned with instead of the 1000's that die every day from hunger or war or viral outbreaks, then I'm going to to Venus - )    

Why stop at race?  How about vegans being offended that animal byproducts are in there such as that poor horse that's been impaled by a huge pole just so kids can ride around in a circle on it???  How about bald people being offended by emoji's with hair or hair grooming products?  How about the couple standing holding hands, this could be offensive to wheelchair bound couples.  Butcher knife and fist?  Really, advocating VIOLENCE??   A bikini emoji?  How does that make the horizontally challenged feel?  A gas pump?  Four words...MAN-MADE-CLIMATE-CHANGE!!  A church building?  Oh that's got to enrage at least 2 billion people.  A snowman with no snow woman?  War on women!  Isn't that a little suggestive that the frog is RIGHT next to the pig?  Stereotype Kermit much?  My personal offensive emoji is the checkbox with the checkmark ALREADY in it.  Do you realize how guilty that makes me feel that they expect my to-do's to already be DONE you little overachievers??  So many currency symbols you capitalist pigs!  Fu man chu...seriously?  Balloon?  Uh, latex alergy!  Fries?  Don't tell Michelle Obama it's there.  Fried eggs?  You're really going to promote the devouring of the unborn?  "Back" "End" "On" "Soon" "Top"?  A little sexually suggestive don't ya think?  NG?  Out of millions of Chinese last names, why are the Ng's so special? The bottom line is, if there are emoji's for so called "sports" and it doesn't include ice hockey, there really is no point in taking the emoji makers seriously anyway.  Besides, WP's is a lot different than Apple and Android...their pizza emoji has a freakin shadow, how cool is that?  And they have a conch shell...why don't we have a conch shell?

If your comment didn't get get anyone's attention, then nothing did... You perfectly summed up todays stupid priorities.

This needs to be saved somehow for others to see. Post a copy in the forums. Light a fire storm.

Sorry I didn't reply to this great post sooner. It took longer than expected to get up from the floor after laughing so hard. Ouch. I need thicker carpet.

Yellow is fine because it doesn't represent a particular race...

I am black and who gives a damn about the color of the emoticons!! The yellow and white emoticons are FINE!! Geez! :-/

I don't think they have politcal correctness in mind - even they cannot possilby think that the current yellow is meant to reprent white, so I assume/hope they are thinking of this to allow for more diversity of expression. HOWEVER, this will also open a huge can of worms, allowing racists to use emoticons also as a mean of expressing their prejudices (assuming you can pick the skin tone very easily and even within a single use/message). BAD BAD idea.

Who. Cares. *scoffs* Liberals...

I thought they were already pretty race neutral. Is anyone actually Canary yellow?

Hmmm, I never really felt like the non-diverse yellow smiley face mis-represent me, but I guess thats not the case. Include me in the diversity-challenged group I guess.

Wow. This world is doomed.

I know all the pre-WWII animators were hoping that their emojis would come with a blackface option.

Seriously??? WTH

They should be fixing the actual emojis on Windows Phone first before they do anything, half of the emojis you pick don't even show up correctly on Facebook etc, pick a face you think it is and its something different lol stupid!

Emojis are yellow, what's to cry about?

Maybe the Simpsons got upset lol!

So many people saying "its not a problem for me so its not a problem" -_-

Are you kidding me?

Yep.  It's this sort of thing that perpetuates "racial" bias.  We have become societies so overly sensitive that we have to go out of our way to do this sort of stuff. Be it new emoji's with varying skin tones, to essentially forcing companies to go out of their way to specifically target certain demographics for employement, when said demographic isn't interested (for the most part) in those particular career fields.  Soooo very tired of hearing "race" this and "race" that.  Racial, race, it's a falacy.  We are one race, human.  Not the "black race" or "white race" or "caucasian" race.  We are humans.  The more we give the false notion of various races attention, the less united we will be.  We will never truly unite as a nation or as a planet, while still harboring the false notion of "races" of humans. 

Someone needs to start a campaign against this I will when I get home, as a multiracial household we see each other as one color and I really don't like this.

Totally pointless? Aren't emojis racially neutral?

Also, this is going to be a mess. If a platform does not support the new codes, it would just show up as a blank square or a normal white square next to the normal white emoji.

Do we even need racial diversity in our emoji roster, seriously? Who here is not content with the yellow skin tone we had for the last decade?

Daymn! Who ever thought the current ones have a problem clearly have waaaaaaaay too much time in his\ her hand

Is there an app that can take a selfie and return the closest Fitzpatrick type? And if not, and trying to figure it out visually, does one try to guess the closest or always round up or down?

Dumb political correctness. Just leave them a nice neutral Simpsons yellow.

Why do we even think that a yellow face is that of a white person?

I must be missing something... None of my emojis are yellow. Only the smiley face ones. All my people seem to be white.  Must have a defective 1520. 

Nobody uses those so everyone forgets they exist.

This is so stupid, they are yellow, they aren't even a skin color of any race, they are neutral the way they are.

Agreed chap

I can't believe I've just sat and read the absolute tosh both in the post and in this comments thread.
No idea why emoji feel they need to be politically correct! Who gives a shit?
Emoji - brought to you by the same people that renamed a blackboard to a chalkboard.
A smiley is just that, a smiley. Why bother wasting coders time with such a pointless update?

I don't think they're black anymore. They're green (mostly).

Racist much?

This is a bad idea. Leave them yellow as they are now

Where is the "fat pasty white guy" emoji? That offends me.

I forgot to say"with receding hairline" and what happened to being able to edit comments in the app?

After this, there will be demand that all emoji is represented with male and female character for equality. The commitee added long hair, and then get a backlash because it's limiting women to only have long hair (and from long haired men because they're not represented). Same thing when they try to add beard, not to mention religious backlash from it.

How about fat ones or short ones? Some dudes wear kilts.. A skirt is purely sexist. What a stupid thing...

Racism, racism everywhere...

These comments are just what I expected from this place

By doing this, they separate people more!

yay to Brown emoji's

What's wrong with it...?

I'm actually kinda saddened by the reaction this is getting. First of all, not all the emojis are yellow (you all know this) and you can take a wild guess at what the other, non-yellow color is. It's really not that big of an issue to receive so much negativity. I'm impressed with this, b/c I've seen a lot of smartphone users say they'd like something like this to happen. Ease up.

Silly. The current versions are race neutral. Leave them alone.

I'm neither black nor white but I'm colored... I belong to the brown race. But until now I've never even noticed that the emojis have pale skins! I hate that google guy and that apple guy for bringing racism into an otherwise color-blind thing! Now everytime I look at those emojis I'll be conscious of the color!

I fully agree with my brown friend...

Ridiculous

Are we really that sensitive about ourselves? I am glad that I now live in a culturally diversified world. When I grew up anyone other then black or white was exotic in southern Ontario. Now we are fully mixed I get to see everyone. This is great. But I am starting to find that everyone wants that extra something special... Everyone has their own cultural society. Lebanese Club, Italian Club, Black Cultural Society, etc... All together but still separate. I can't join any of them. I can't form my own as it would be racist. Okay I get that, my ancestors stepped on a lot of peoples, I am truly sorry. Now we have our own culturally divided smiley's? Why can't we just stick to the simple ones? :-)

Wow isn't this same thing as customization to our devices? I just see it as adding more personalization to our devices? So what's the uproar about :/

So then when you set up your phone it asks what race you are? Yikes!

I want the gay couple emoji on WP

So here's another one... In my town at the ferry terminal they put in new washrooms. The image of the girl in a skirt is there which I think could confuse a few dudes I know who like to wear kilts. The men's room... A guy in a sow ester hat. I'm not a fisherman!! Some girls fish!!! Where the heck am I gonna pee if I am male in a kilt that does not fish!!! See the stupidity of over thinking things?

The fact so many white people in this community are mad at that this change is quite frankly disturbing. Think I'll refrain from comments on this site from now on.

Seems pointless... Can we please focus on more useful features like holographic screens & stuff.

It's neutral as it is, why add colors? 

Don't fix it if it ain't broke, people love current set of emoji just add some more and be done. Why do we need race in emoticons too?
Personally I don't have any issue but many of people are gonna have some.

What's with the Simpsons discrimination going on here? lol

Pointless, I'm latino mixed skin, I've never given a tought about the race of the :) or :( or ;)   .... They're freacking yellow!!! no race!!!

Seriously???

This is so stupid

I don't think that it would be coming for WP anytime soon.

What is emoji?

God, look at all the racist butthurt! It's just some damn pointless emojis ffs!

Don't even bother this is a waste of time and am ok with regular emoji these will definitely spark up a racist feel. Come on were all one ppl created to be equal.

Nope.. We don't want any colours to show these and that.. We humans are all the same.. Please don't waste your time on these stupid ideas.. World's changing.. And hope so you guys do..

I think the current emoticons are fun and race neutral. Doing this will only add a race element to it. Gotta say, got a little annoyed at this.

Next up.....Pacman!

YAY!!!  I GET TO USE BROWN EMPJI'S!!! FINALLY.

'Hike' smily stickers are really good and would be glad if MS bring them to their keypad.

Multiethnic little people icons on my phone, can't wait!