I did think about this a few years ago and opted for 👍. I feel a little weird when I see the white reacts used by others. This is not so much of a problem anymore but Slack/etc used to not stack the reacts, so if everyone was thumbs-upping you'd have a bunch of different ones instead of just one count and it made voting with 👍👎 more difficult. If nonwhite comrades tell me they prefer the white ones I'll switch but I suspect nobody gives a shit.
I'm honestly a little suspicious of anyone who uses the white 👍. I feel like the only people who care enough to explicitly use it instead of the yellow are either virtue signalling liberals or white supremacists. I'm probably reading far, far too much into people's emoji choices though.
I’m genuinely baffled by these kinds of responses lol. Did I miss a big event where liberals were using white emojis or something? The first thing I think about when I see 👏🏻 is “this person is either white or have white skin” and move on with my life
It depends on the context a lot. Someone using a white thumbs up might just be white, but they are announcing that they are white. This could mean absolutely nothing, but in certain online spaces, it can be a white supremacist dogwhistle. It's really dumb that we have to look out for it at all, but they love appropriating any symbol they can.
In my case, the only person I know IRL and regularly uses white emojis is the deeply brainwormed type that believes white men are marginalized by society. He also uses the really pale one even if his actual skin tone is at least one shade darker, which is another can of brainworms.
I'm white, but I'm also fairly confident no one gives a shit. The Simpsons colored one isn't to be "raceless." It's just the default. It's for anyone (not just white people) who don't care to broadcast their race to people or just can't be bothered changing it. This article is a solution looking for a problem.
Asian here. If a white guy came to me and gave me some 20 minute analysis on why white emojis are racist so that’s why he doesn’t use them, I will assume he’s a trust fund neoliberal and advocates for genocide in third world countries. I am not kidding. Take that as you will
That would be excessive, but everything we do sends a message so it's reasonable to consider how the message might be interpreted. What do you think when you see a yellow emoji without a 20 minute unprompted analysis?