WhatsApp promoting unity in diversity or racism?

If you are one of those who just updated their WhatsApp app then the talk of town for you must be the variety of features that WhatsApp just introduced. But within the array of features being introduced the one which is getting all the attention is the new set of emoticons. Users can now select face and hand gestures in different skin tones.

Associating fairness with beauty and superiority has been a part and parcel of our society though highly de-humanising and fairness creams have long been part of this propaganda but what glued all eyes on the WhatsApp was the segregation of different skin tones on a very popular messaging app like this which introduced its racially diverse emoji update for all users. It has been since facing a lot of criticism for the same, but is it right to criticise?

The point to ponder upon is what exactly was WhatsApp thinking about this version? Is it to indicate that a dark tone person should use a dark emoji and vice-versa? However, the general emoticons are still yellow in colour. WhatsApp in its latest update has also introduced a ‘middle finger’ emoji. Now you have to ‘consciously’ pick the emoji that best suits the person you are messaging with but unfortunately no matter which colour emoji you use now, it will make you racist.

Unity in diversity is a good thing , for some it is an expression for freely exercising racial freedom, on the contrary others feel that is though diversification is great but that does not mean that we have to interfere in everything to show that we give equal importance to every colour instead it looks like a defence to the discrimination that is put under the cover, it shows that we actually differentiate that is why different shades of colour is required.

Now whether these racially diverse emoji’s are a good or bad idea it is open for discussion as different people are entitled to hold different opinions.