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Are you an avid emoji user? Me too. I love expressing myself with those adorable little photos. However, I know I’m not alone when I say, “How come there’s no Black emojis?” The closest thing we have to a Black emoji is that Middle Eastern dude, rocking a turban, oh and let us not forget that guy with the black thing on his head–what is that anyway? There’s 800 freakin’ emojis and none of them look like us. We’ve been begging for years, but it looks like Black emojis are finally on the way! Apple had us all excited in March when they announced that they were working with Unicode Consortium (a company which encodes the popular figures used in iPhones, Androids and other smartphones) to add more diversity to emojis.

MUST READ: 10 Emojis Every Black Woman Wishes She Had

According to reports, Unicode Consortium is indeed planning to add a skin-tone modifier to its system — allowing users to decide if they want to send a White, Black or Brown smiley face. “People all over the world want to have emoji that reflect more human diversity, especially for skin tone,” Unicode wrote in a draft of its update.

Each character — haircut girl, praying hands, thumbs up, dancer in a red dress, even the police man and angel — would be available in original pale and four darker shades. It’s about time!

Many critics may say that people of color are being way too sensitive about race and that this isn’t even large enough to be considered an issue, however, this conversation is bigger than a tiny smiley to replace your words via text. This is about racial equality. Minorities rarely get a chance to see themselves being represented. And honestly, if Apple and Unicode Consortium  were to make this monumental move, people of color would feel just a tiny bit more accepted in society.

It may be “just” emojis, but adding diversity is a start in racial inclusion.First emoijis, then the world! There’s no potential date for the release of the colorful emojis, but we’ll be checking our phones daily!

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The Black Faces We All Want: Diverse Emojis Are On The Way!  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com