Afro emojis: Call for world's first emojis with black and mixed-race hairstyles

To address this, community support group Rise.365 is calling for more inclusive emojis to be released. This comes further to research amongst its black and mixed-race members which shows that a third (32%) feel ‘overlooked and forgotten’*, specifically as a result of there not being any emojis that reflected their hairstyle.

What is Texturism?

The lack of inclusivity in the digital world highlights the ever-present issue of Texturism in the UK, and beyond. Texturism is a form of social injustice, where afro-textured hair or coarse hair types, and their associated hairstyles, are viewed negatively, often perceived as ’unprofessional’, ‘unattractive’, or ‘unclean’. This bias can occur anywhere – at school, in the workplace, or even among friends.

Rise.365 polled its black and mixed-race members, and found 61% have experienced discrimination or bullying because of their hair type or hairstyle, with 63% having had their hair touched without their consent. Furthermore, a previous study showed that 41% of black, indigenous and people of colour women said they have decided to straighten their hair to fit Western beauty standards.

The call for representative emojis with black and mixed-race hairstyles

Despite there being over 3,782 emojis available to use, three quarters (74%) of the black and mixed-race community polled by Rise.365 said there isn’t an emoji that represents their hairstyle, leading to a third (32%) feeling overlooked and forgotten.

This is why Rise.365 is calling for four new emojis to be added to the Unicode list of emoji characters. The emojis feature common black and mixed-race hairstyles (Afro, Braids, Cainrows and Locs), sported, and designed, by the young people the group supports.

For young people, emojis are a key form of communication, in fact, 93% of British Gen Zers (age 18-34) and millennials (age 35-44) feel emojis have a positive impact on the tone of a conversation. Yet many feel excluded when they can’t see themselves represented***.

Reanna, designer of the braids emoji design said: “Having these emojis made is such a big deal and a massive step towards encouraging people to embrace/feel comfortable with their hair. To be able to be the representative of the braids emoji is such a huge honour and I hope this empowers people to be comfortable in their hair textures and styles.”

Support the introduction of the world’s first emojis with black and mixed-race hairstyles

The four emojis will be submitted to Unicode in April 2025 for consideration. If approved, they will bring much-needed inclusivity to digital communication across devices worldwide. However, for Unicode to be persuaded that these emojis are necessary, Rise.365 needs public support to demonstrate their importance for black and mixed-race representation.

To help Rise.365 make the world’s first emojis with black and mixed-race hairstyles a reality, all they’re asking is you simply Google ‘Afro hair’. A key criterion for Unicode when reviewing submissions is frequency of use of the key term associated with the proposed emoji. They assess this by looking at Google Trend data, looking at web, image and video searches of the key term, which for the Rise.365 submission will be ‘Afro hair’. You can also download the emojis here and use the hashtag #Rise365Texturism, or reshare posts from influencers supporting the cause.

Joyclen Brodie-Mends Buffong, Founder of Rise.365 said “black and mixed-race people across the UK are confronted by Texturism on a daily basis and so we really want to start changing perceptions for future generations -starting where it matters most, with young people. Introducing these emojis will not only help more black and mixed-race people feel equally represented, but we also hope this campaign kick starts conversations around the bigger issues of Texturism and Afro hair discrimination. We need everyone to help us show Unicode why these emojis are needed, so please get searching, and hopefully next year we will see these emojis added to keyboards everywhere.”

Together, we can help ensure that black and mixed-race people are fully represented in the emoji world.