The other day I was sitting at home, minding my own business when my phone went off. One of my buddies sent an X-Men related meme to the group chat. The meme itself was totally cringe—as all memes are. But this was especially heinous because it continued to parrot the obviously false narrative of The X-Men support diversity that I already debunked.
I was ready-and-willing to fire back in total disdain and mockery. What I was not, however, was able. I opened my messaging app and opened the emoji keyboard and started searching. I was questing for burning cross emoji’s; None. Alright, how about a pointed-white-hood emoji? Nope. A noose emoji? Empty-handed again. I tried a few other logos of white supremacy (you know, what the X-Men support in practice) only to come to a stunning realization; Apple does not have any white supremacist emoji’s whatsoever. Naturally, my differently-working brain kicked into hyperdrive; I needed to see how exclusionary Apple’s default keyboard was on a viscera level.
I started searching for flag emoji’s on my trusty-yet-dated iPhone 8. North Korea’s flag was present and accounted for, as was Iran’s and Eritrea’s. So clearly, being an organization of systemic hate isn’t a disqualifier, at least at a state-level. So why were state-sponsored dealers of distrust deemed delectable yet NGO-based discord was deplorable? Thus, I dug further…
Originally, I had expected there to be a ton of left-leaning bias from Apple. After all, their founder had his well-publicized beliefs and Apple is still an unofficial liberal bastion. With that said, the bias isn’t nearly as strong as I first thought it would be. There are no emoji’s for Nation of Islam or Black Panthers. Ditto for other race-centric/race-adjacent enthusiast groups such as The Proud Boys, MS-13, Chinese Triad, or the Yakuza. Outside of a few pigmented fists for Black Lives Matter, Apple’s keyboard is surprisingly equal. After all, aren’t we all inherently equal if everybody is being neglected?
“Alright Dan, enough with the focus on race, can you just stay in your usual wheelhouse of purely political extremism please?” Alright Karen, I’ll humor you. The default Apple keyboard also lacks emoji’s based on most common political affiliations. Both Democrat and Republican animal logos are noticeably absent, as is my beloved porcupine. There’s no emoji for anarchists either. So even non-pigmentation-related hate is suspiciously absent in the marketplace of ideas emoji’s.
After all, what is hatred if not a sustained manifestation of an emotion? Apple clearly does traffic in emotion, since nearly every other emotion is celebrated. There are several variations of crying emoji’s to indicate depression. Ditto for angry faces to display rage, and a whole slew of happy faces to show joy. Thus, there is no reason to exclude symbols of hate from the emoji library.
But Why?
Truthfully, the inclusion of openly white-supremacist emojis benefits all of us, if you think about it. First, it benefits polite society as a whole who finds these views repugnant. How, you might ask? Simple; anyone who uses these unironically is essentially outing themselves as a bigot, thus the average person knows to steer clear. Moving beyond the average person and into law enforcement/prosecutors/the intel community, these emoji’s would still be useful. Why? Simple; These emojis are attention magnets, more so than a Playboy centerfold thirst-trapping on Instagram. Throw a few swastika emoji’s in a Signal chat with your shithead buddies and see how long it stays truly encrypted…
“Well Dan, what about people who use these ironically and/or sarcastically?” That’s also a good thing because it gives the vast majority of the public, who find these views abhorrent, a new tool to throw at their political adversaries. After all, Godwin’s law is a thing. Are you a liberal arguing on the internet with a conservative on the issue of immigration? Blast a few Sieg Heil emoji’s with your (alleged) total zinger of a response and your fellow redditors might even shower you in updoots!
Besides the unintended signaling to the outsiders, the actual bigots themselves assuredly might want to have their own symbols represented in Apple. After all, representation matters, and if everyone truly deserves a safe space, then that would include white supremacists too, right? Any other answer besides an enthusiastic Yes is grounds for dismissal via hypocrisy. And what is the internet but one major Hypocrisy Identifying Machine?
“Dan, why the hell are you focusing on this?” That’s simple, Karen; because these are some widely recognizable logos to even semi-politically literate people. Thus, this is clearly low-hanging fruit for Apple to pick (heehee, see what I did there?). Piggybacking from that, it makes it truly difficult to believe that these non-existent emoji’s are mere omissions rather than willful blindness. The potential for Gotcha journalism would be far too high vis-a-vie Apple doesn’t care about [insert group here].
The more likely explanation would be that Apple is likely trying to not stir the pot. The inclusion of openly White nationalist symbols would certainly generate controversy. At this point, Apple is less interested in breaking cultural norms as they were in 1984. Instead, what they want is a smooth road to the quarterly reports for Wall Street. And if it’s one thing that would disrupt that, it’s a deluge of negative press. Bad press brings price swings, and Wall St does not like price volatility.
But we as a society cannot nor should not accept this argument. After all, emoji’s in and of themselves are harmless. They trigger responses in us because we assign value to them. You know what tends to increase the allure of an idea? Making it a taboo. Anyone who disagrees with me can ask a canceled Conservative from the last decade if they have any doubts about that claim. Banning symbols does not eradicate the ideas behind the symbols, so let’s stop pretending that it does.
Get everything out in the open.
Home Page 