 An emoji researcher at Google and PhD candidate involved in the study said the emoji modifiers were used widely, but it was people with darker skin who used them in higher proportions and more often. Instead, some white people may stick with the yellow emoji because they don't want to assert their privilege by adding a light-skinned emoji to a text or to take advantage of something that was created to represent diversity. Perhaps like Heath Rossell, they simply don't want to think about how their message can be interpreted.