Blizzard community,
Our world has a long history of racism. Humans create groups, and then create divisions between groups unlike themselves. Ironic how we need each other as social creatures, yet we developed the practice to ‘other’ humans who at first glance don’t look like what we see in the mirror.
I have made it a personal obligation to educate myself about trauma others endure, and to work to change those experiences for them. Many within Blizzard come from a place of strong purpose, with a will to do in order to help society.
Last year at BlizzCon, I made a commitment for Blizzard to do better. We pride ourselves on learning and growing, and doing something now that reflects our company and community values. I also said that our actions would matter more than our words—we have been publicly silent until now because action is the important part.
Let me be clear: Blizzard stands in solidarity with those fighting against racism, because racism is as dangerous as any pandemic for those affected. We stand with those fighting against social and institutional structures that promote inequality among people of color.
Last week, AB announced donations to the Equal Justice Initiative, the United Negro College Fund, and the Management Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) to fight systemic racial inequality. At Blizzard, we are working on initiatives for our community and our workplace.
In our games: For many years, we’ve had teams working with A.I. and machine learning to reduce toxicity and hate speech, as well as to help improve the overall gaming experience. Since January 1 this year, we’ve banned over 30,000 accounts for these reasons, as well as issued more than three million total hours of player suspensions. These penalties have notably improved our game environments: over the last two years, we’ve seen a 43% reduction in poor behavior reports, and a 59% reduction in the re-offense rate. And while this is progress, we’ve identified other places where we can use this technology and have more work to continue to do toward this effort.
In our relationships: We are also reviewing our partnerships to identify opportunities to support Black-owned and diverse businesses, and to amplify the voices of Black content creators and influencers.
Juneteenth: Today at Blizzard, we are observing Juneteenth with the goal of encouraging employees to take the time to be educated. We hosted a virtual session with a leader in our home city of Irvine, California, so employees can learn more about implicit bias, implications for law and policy, and how they can get involved in local efforts to drive change. We have also provided a list of resources to help coworkers self-educate, and shared ways to get involved in advocacy.
Ongoing: We are stronger with more diverse views and experiences. We are committed to being a more equitable workplace, including how and where we recruit, our HR practices, and employee support. We will also put an ongoing employee education program into place. This program will include more training and education (with the materials purchased from Black and minority-owned businesses), and Blizzard-wide town halls with experts on allyship, advocacy, and racism.
All of this work will continue to make Blizzard better, and play some small part in a larger, positive shift.
To our Black community, colleagues, and partners, Blizzard stands with you.
Black lives matter, today and always.
- J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment
Ok
But Bosnian lives never metter to Blizzard, we cant even play your tournaments just becouse we are born in Bosnia?
Nice commercial usage of Black Lives Marketing....
You should send them some cevapi to change their minds
Hahaha I laughed a lot!
Sad to hear that my money goes to communistlike groups which live from seperation and hate, instead of finishing games i am long waiting for.
but good to read this before i bought the new demonhunter skin, which i already was angry about, cause all my long spared dust went into most nerfed class
When Hearthpwn turns into Facebook...
A few days ago BMKibler streamed with the title black lives matter. Also he collected money for some BLM-related organization. I wrote in the chat that it's sad that even in a place I visit to relax I have to see these stupid things. I got a ban for it. But one of the people watching this stream wrote to me and said that he agree with what I wrote. As it turned out, I met an interesting person (and a good player in
HS). Maybe I lost the streamer I liked to watch but I gained a new friend.
(sorry for my English)
Kibler is a foolish self-interested leftist clown! He was fucking disgustingly hypocritical from the beginning!
Yeah bro, now I know what an ass*ole and hypocrite he is.
Not much of substance there, but at least they are talking about it. Systemic racism has been the norm for far too long, it's important that we keep talking about it so that politicians get the message and take steps to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to succeed in life.
Everyone having a fair chance to succeed in life? What sort of communism is this!? :O
Weeb lives do not matter
Preach!
gaming + LGBTQ + BLM + other nonsense politics = NO THANKS
True Gamers
Because people from BlackLivesMatter don't care about white people.
During these last days a white old man was killed by a policeman; it was recorded and nobody of BlackLivesMatter cared.
So yeah, BlackLivesMatter doesn't support white lives.
Then show me 1 post of 1 person that supports BlackLivesMatter caring recently of a white live that isn't a member of it's family or it's friend.
You just can't, I dare you.
Black lives matter is about black people that are facing rascism and violance because of their skin color. Are white people black? I don`t think so, then why should they care about something that barely has any relation to the movement. Especially, where the death of a white guy by a police officer is a different story than one with a black guy. Seriuosly first finish your school and then talk about complex stuffs...
I didn't say that people that support BlackLivesMatter ought to use that hashtag for white people.
I said the same people then don't support unknown white people.
And keep ignoring that in Africa black people kill white people because they are white.
BLM talks about black people, not white is it that hard? Moreover the movement is in western countries and the subject are western countries... Are african countries western? No.
For the third time, I'm saying that people who supports BLM when they are not using the hashtag of BLM don't care about killed unknown white people.