NPR Torched for Bizarre Story About Emojis and ‘White Privilege’

For most people, their choice of emojis and color is probably just a way to have fun communicating with friends, family, and co-workers.

But according to a story by NPR published on Wednesday, if you are white, your decision not to use a white emoji could be a sign that you “lack of awareness about white privilege.”

Come again?

The outlet notes that in 2015, the options for emojis expanded from just the “default Simpsons-like yellow” color to include five skin new tones for hand gestures.

But the new options, according to NPR, could say a lot about you.

Sarai Cole, an opera singer in Germany, told NPR that she chooses a brown skin tone for her emojis because “that matches me.” But she has friends “who use the brown ones, too, but they are not brown themselves,” and “this confuses me.”

“She said that while she was not offended when a non-brown friend used a dark emoji, she would like to understand why,” the story continued.

Cole added, “I think it would be nice if it is their default, but if they’re just using it with me or other brown people, I would want to look into that deeper and know why they’re doing that.”

You may think you are safe if you decide to skip the effort of changing the skin color of your emojis and just stick with the generic yellow color. Perhaps you “don’t want to assert” your “privilege by adding a light-skinned emoji to a text, or to take advantage of something that was created to represent diversity.”