Emojis became part of our everyday conversation. Whether it's texting or tweeting, a simply emoji can simplify explaining emotions and thoughts. But emoji makers, Unicode, have faced criticisms in the past for their lack of diverse representation. It's improved since then and Unicode has worked to make emojis as inclusive as possible. However, there's still more to be done. Tinder and Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, have launched a new campaign to make emojis for interracial couples.
Tinder, Ohanian and Emojination founder, Jennifer 8, have teamed up to for their a new campaign #RepresentLove. The new campaign is meant to create an option for people to customize skin tones for the couple emojis. They've launched a petition on Change.org as well as an emoji proposal requesting Unicode to make this happen.
"While emojis for many races have been available since 2015, there are none available for couples," Rosette Pambakian, Tinder's head of bran, told Wired. "Now is the time to change that."
Ohanian, who has a child with Serena Williams, explained that he wants his child to grow up in a world where interracial dating is normalized.
"We want our kids to have emojis that look like their parents. [Emoji] are the universal language of the internet and should reflect the modern world where interracial relationships are normal." He said. Ohanian also helped push for the hijab emoji.
The petition comes after Tinder conducted surveys that showed that 52% of people on their app didn't feel like they were properly represented by today's tech culture of gifs, memes and emojis.
