Diversity in the workplace is a serious issue at any company. Especially, you’d think, at Google, a multinational tech company that holds a place in much of our online activity.
Yet the giant of the tech industry is not with controversy. Last year, James Damore, a former Google engineer, was fired after criticizing the company’s diversity programs. He argued that women were biologically less suited for tech jobs. Earlier this year, a former engineer sued the company for its internal-communication forms, claiming that they were used to harass women and minorities.
But don’t get scrambled up about Google’s diversity controversy just yet. The company has recently changed their salad emoji for Android P beta 2 as an effort to be more inclusive toward vegans.
Jennifer Daniel, a Google UX Manager at Expression design team, tweeted a before and after picture of the emoji. While the first version of the salad had an egg in it, the new and inclusive version appears with no egg.
There’s big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this priority may I direct your attention to the ? emoji— we’ve removed the egg in Android P beta 2, making this a more inclusive vegan salad. pic.twitter.com/kzHY0A9ZjG
— Jennifer ??️ (@jenniferdaniel) June 6, 2018
While some vegans online were “eggcited” about the change, others cracked jokes at Daniel, upset that the emoji change was somehow considered a move toward “inclusion.”
…thank you. :) #vegan
— Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) June 6, 2018
— Tyler (@_shader) June 6, 2018
Daniel tweeted about the emoji again, clarifying that the redesign wasn’t a slight on people who eat animal products — but instead a move to stay truthful to the unicode description.
Hello carnivores, vegans and everyone in between! Just want to clarify that the goal of salad emoji redesign was to create an image more faithful to unicode’s description. “A bowl of healthy salad, containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumber.” Bon appetite!
— Jennifer ??️ (@jenniferdaniel) June 6, 2018