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Unicode made the decision to be more inclusive of modern romance in response to a Change.org petition launched by Tinder last year. The company, which has a culturally diverse user base, used the #RepresentLove hashtag to reach its audience and garner more than 52,000 signatures, stating: While emojis for people of color and emojis for same-sex couples both became a reality in 2015, one group of people is still excluded from emoji representation: interracial couples. Isnt it time all love was represented?
The companys official blog went into further detail on how something as seemingly trivial as an emoji can have a lasting positive impact on how interracial romance is perceived in society.
This isnt just about emojis, folks, the post said. Interracial couples have struggled throughout history for acceptance and representation, and these emojis are literally and figuratively, important symbols.
Actress, talk show host, and Tinder Ambassador Tamera Mowry-Housley shared one of the new emojis in a paid Instagram post, saying: Theres never been an emoji to represent interracial couples like @adamhousley and me. But theres gonna be, thanks to @tinder.
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View this post on Instagram There's never been an emoji to represent interracial couples like @adamhousley and me. But there's gonna be, thanks to @tinder. I think love is beautiful, so put ain the comments with #RepresentLove if you're with me! #Tinder_Ambassador A post shared by tameramowrytwo (@tameramowrytwo) on Mar 5, 2019 at 10:01am PST
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Unicode has continually updated its emoji designs to encompass cultural diversity, releasing a new range of skin tones in 2014. 2019s latest batch also included a new wheelchair emoji.