Does the skin color you choose when you select an emoji make you a racist? According to this 800-word piece of drivel from NPR, it probably does. Three NPR “reporters” gathered their collective brain cells together to compose an entire article explaining how when white people choose the yellow skin color emoji, they’re signaling a “lack of awareness for their white privilege.” In 2015, five skin tone options became available for hand gesture emojis along with the traditional yellow color. According to NPR, when white people use a yellow emoji and assume that yellow is “neutral,” they’re refusing to confront the fact that they are, in fact, white. This is a form of privilege because non-white people must constantly confront their race, which they signal by more frequently using the other skin tones. Why does such an astoundingly brilliant observation warrant coverage in one of our country’s largest, most influential newsrooms? That’s an excellent question. SEE ALSO: Please, Black Lives Matter, Keep Making the Holidays about Your Racist Ideologies NPR’s article perfectly illustrates the brand of thinking that has frustrated so many Americans in the past few years. After the successful Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, racist laws and policies were outlawed from coast to coast. In subsequent decades, Americans taught their children that segregation was evil, and that white people were no more important or valuable than people of different races. This non-racist mindset was promoted not just in public schools but in churches, community groups, and at family dinner tables. That mindset shift culminated in the election of America’s first black president to two terms in the White House. I think Barack Obama was a terrible president who did irreparable damage to our country, but his election was still proof positive that the vast, vast majority of Americans were not racist. This presented the radical left with a problem. For decades, they had organized around being anti-racist. With America obviously moving beyond its racist past, they had nothing with which to compel voters to the polls. Some switched to promoting LGTBQ people as the new oppressed class, but others maintained that America was still deeply racist. Now, however, white people aren’t overtly racist. They’re unintentionally racist. SEE ALSO: Colin Kaepernick Redefines “Racism” Even if they believe that all races of people are equal; even if they have friends and family who are of different races; even if they claim that they harbor no ill will towards minority groups; actually white people are still racist. Which brings me back to this article from NPR. The reporters and the interviewees are operating under exactly this premise. White people don’t mean to be racist when they choose the yellow emoji, but they are racist, nonetheless. This catch 22 is endlessly frustrating to common-sense Americans. They know they’re not racist, and yet even the most inconsequential action can supposedly signal a deep and unconscious bias against their minority friends. This is part of the reason Americans flocked to Donald Trump, and it’s part of the reason Americans are about to hammer the Democrats in the 2022 midterms. They’re sick and tired of being told they’re racist, and while they may not have NRP’s platform to push back, they can still make their voices heard at the polls. If you ask me, that can’t come soon enough.
