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
You've misspelled Jeff Kaplan but ok, same company
you got a point, my bad. well, mister j isn't far off
Just went past a few pages of comments and reported anyone saying things like "all lives matter" or anything racist. Sad to say there were far too many of it, and most of it upvoted by a considerable amount.
Guess I did what I can before quitting this site entirely, sad to think I was a part of this kind of community for years before realizing.
All lives matter
Honest question as I am not from U.S,
Why is All lives matter racist?
Disclaimer: I'm not from the US either.
I'm glad you asked, instead of just ridiculing it like the comment above you.
#BlackLivesMatter movement is worthy and important because African Americans are being systematically treated as lesser citizens in the US, especially by the police. When have you last heard of a white man being strangled to death because he was caught with counterfeit money? When have you last heard of a white man going for a jog and being shot because two (white) guys thought he looked suspicious? Those are actual things that happen everyday.
#BlackLivesMatter doesn't mean any other lives don't matter, It means the problem is that Black Lives matter less right now. This comic explains it perfectly well. Saying "all lives matter" is claiming ownership of the statement. that action ignores and diverts attention from the mistreatment of a certain part of the population that actually suffers because the general notion is that their lives matter less if at all.
Diverting attention or claiming and changing a statement meant to promote social equality - means you reject it. Rejecting it is Racism, with a capital R.
You are quite welcome to message me privately if you're interested to know more. I'm not deleting my user even if I'm done reading anything posted on this site.
It is pathetic that someone from Europe would think this way. We're supposed to be above petty US sociopolitical nonsense. It is what separates us from them. Then again, you might be from Brexitland where americanisation is all too common.
There is no evidence outside of anecdotes to suggest such a thing as "white privilege" and systematic racism.
Not all black lives matter, not the lives of violent criminals. That old black business owner who got murdered by looters clearly didn't matter to BLM activists. I'm going to start caring about black lives when your side starts caring about white victims of interracial crime.
The people who support BLM don't think white lives matter. All lives matter includes white people, that's why it's racist.
So I guess Muslim or Mexican lives don't matter as much as Black lives by that logic.
It's a shame though, that reporting those guys won't do shit. Look at the number of upvotes. I never expected this community to be like this.
Same, I never knew this community was so goddamn based👌
Saying all lives matter is equal to calling the fire department when you house is on fire. Department shows up and starts spraying water on all houses other than yours cause all houses matter.
I'm not European either, but keep guessing, there are only so few continents left.
It's funny, I thought it was an American ideal of not caring about anybody else but themselves, but I guess there's enough feeling of African "inferiority" to go around the world.
I think more unarmed black people have been killed in the riots in the last month than by the police in the last year or something crazy like that
Comparing black people to a "house on fire" smh. So many racists in these comments guys.
It's not an inherently racist statement to say All Lives Matter, obviously, I wouldn't call someone racist for saying it.
I guess the main point though is that obviously all lives matter, it's a complete truism and redundant to say it and it isn't something that BLM is denying. The point of BLM (and you can argue about the naming of it, I certainly don't think it's the best) is that it's specifically about conditions and treatment that black people face that other ethnicities don't, or experience to a lesser degree. So if your reaction to that is to say well, actually, ALL lives matter as if that wasn't apparent already then I guess I would feel you're either not fully aware/engaged with what BLM is actually about, or you disagree with it. Clearly neither of these things make anyone a racist on their own, it is perfectly possible to disagree with BLM and not be racist. Although, equally clearly, if you were racist you would almost certainly disagree with it.
The waters are muddied further by the fact that All Lives Matter has become adopted a counter-slogan to BLM by groups that are explicitly opposed to BLM. However it is also used by groups that are broadly in support of BLM so yeah, it can be confusing. Personally I don't get why, if you generally understood and agreed with the principles of BLM, you would feel the need to state All Lives Matter, so I generally assume people who say it don't support the ideas behind BLM. But that is a value judgement on my part and may be wrong in many cases.
A Chinese owned company talking about BLM - LOL, LOL, LOL!!!
The first hate crimes in China after Covid-19 were against black people.
If I got a penny for every alt right dog whistle on this comment...