Emoji dictionary
✊ Raised Fist emoji
[ reyzd fist ih-moh-jee ]
What does ✊ Raised Fist emoji mean?
The Raised Fist emoji ✊ depicts a raised right hand clenched into a fist, displayed outwards as if raised into the air. The emoji is commonly used to express solidarity with historically oppressed groups or people and social causes. It is also used to convey various ideas of empowerment, political protest and resistance, and civil disobedience. Sometimes, the emoji is used to represent a fist bump, similar to the Oncoming Fist 👊, Left-Facing Fist 🤛, and Right-Facing Fist 🤜 emoji.
The Raised Fist emoji ✊, especially versions with darker skin tones, are especially used to show support for Black Lives Matter and other protests and racial injustice and police violence.
Where does ✊ Raised Fist emoji come from?
The Raised Fist emoji ✊ was approved under Unicode 6.0 in 2010. On all major platforms, the generic form of the emoji shows a yellow right hand with fingers clenched into a fist, palm towards the viewer. Skin tone modifiers are available for this emoji.
Since its release, the Raised Fist emoji ✊ has been used to express statements of resistance and defiance. The raised fist itself has been used as a gesture of solidarity, opposition to oppression, and political protest since at least the early 1900s. This fist is especially associated as a symbol of Black Power and Black pride, popularized by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s–70s.
In the 2010s, the raised fist spread as a symbol of Black Power within the Black Lives Matter Movement. Online, people commonly show support of Black Lives Matter and other commitments to social and economic justice with the Raised Fist emoji ✊, especially in its darker skin tone variants: Dark Skin Tone ✊🏿, Medium-Dark Skin Tone ✊🏾, and Medium Skin ✊🏽.
Examples of ✊ Raised Fist emoji
Who uses ✊ Raised Fist emoji?
The Raised Fist emoji ✊ can be used to represent general feelings of strength, power, and energy, such as when one feels “pumped up” or is conveying a sentiment or “right on” or “rock on.”
Let's go bros Game day ⚾️✊
— David Paul (@DPaul11) May 30, 2014
Centuries from Fall Out Boy gets me so pumped up✊🔥
— Chels (@ChelseaBranecky) January 13, 2015
The emoji is also sometimes used to represent a fist bump.
Officially graduated! Fist bump ✊🏼
— Kolby Greenslade (@KolbyKolb2) April 28, 2017
Frequently paired with the Black Heart emoji 🖤, the Raised Fist emoji ✊ is especially used by members of Black Lives Matter or people committed to opposing racial injustice.
An important note on using the different skin tones available for the Raised Fist emoji ✊: many white allies of Black Lives Matter commonly use all skin tone versions of the Raised Fist emoji, ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻, rather than just the Light Skin Tone or Medium-Light Skin Tone ones (which may be confused with gestures of white power), the default yellow fist (which may be taken as erasing skin color), or darker-skin tones on their own (which may be considered a kind of identity appropriation or digital blackface).
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of ✊ Raised Fist emoji like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of ✊ Raised Fist emoji that will help our users expand their word mastery.