Is Thumbs Up Emoji Racist? NPR Apparently Claims That Yellow Emojis Deny White Privilege

Is the Thumbs Up Emoji Racist? NPR got criticized for its article on emojis and how some emojis can typify White privilege.

NPR, aka National Public Radio, recently investigated the ways many white people use the yellow thumb emoji and benefit from it. Zara Rahma, a researcher in Berlin, found that white people believe that both white and yellow emojis are theirs.

Whereas, black people claim to only use the black thumb emojis. Zara says that white people think they can use yellow emojis due to their systematic entitlement. It felt like a lack of awareness of white privilege in many ways.

NPR: Is Thumbs Up Emoji Racist? How?

NPR published an article on February 9, 2022, on the yellow thumb emoji, white privilege, and racism in society. Three NPR employees, Asma Khalid, Patrick Jarenwattananon, and Alejandra Marquez Janse, wrote the story on which skin color emojis should people use. 

They stretched to many resources to investigate the society's solemn dangers very carefully. One of the NPR writers studied Twitter data and concluded that some white people use the yellow emoji to steer clear of their privilege. 

Some white people may choose 👍 because it feels neutral — but some academics argue opting out of 👍🏻 signals a lack of awareness about white privilege, akin to society associating whiteness with being raceless.https://t.co/9g3rochT0K

— NPR (@NPR) February 9, 2022

Some white people stick with the yellow thumbs-up emoji as they do not want to assert their privilege by adding the light-skinned emoji. They do not want to be taken advantage of something which got created to represent diversity.

The NPR article was called out as based on their research, it is racist no matter what emoji white people use. According to Fox News, Twitters users have criticized the article for investigating the ridiculous topic.

NPR Skin Color Emojis Article Sparks Racism Outrage

The NPR Skin Color Emojis article has sparked racism outrage on Twitter. Chris Rufo, the Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo took Twitter to share his opinion on the matter. He tweeted that it took three NPR employees to write something this stupid. 

Incredible that it took *three* NPR employees to write something this stupid. pic.twitter.com/8KtXWN0sIz

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 9, 2022

Other people on Twitter believe that it is too dumb to even think about. Some feel that they are actively trying to find the most irrelevant and trivial point so that it can divide people. 

Does Yellow Thumbs Up Emoji Deny White Privilege?

According to NPR's article, the yellow thumbs-up emoji denies white privilege. A white person using it might mean that they are not thinking about race. 

Out Kick joked that the Yellow emojis got created for The Simpsons, but white people went and appropriated them.

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