Though the intent was to represent more people, the way it plays out in real life — such as my interaction with my white friend — is not very comfortable at all. Cultural appropriation in certain directions are never comfortable anyway — and while emoji co-opting may not always exactly be cultural appropriation, they do share some elements (e.g. using an aspect of someone’s cultural identity however you please, without due respect). And in this case, a lighter skinned person using a darker emoji can be uncomfortable, whereas the reverse might not be true. In the same way that reverse racism isn’t really a thing , a darker skinned person using a light emoji might be weird, but the concepts of systemic disenfranchisement don’t really come into play in the same way.