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
Ofc BLM cares about black people facing racism. It is in the name lol
This is correct but then they don't have the right to be upset when white people don't care about what is happening to them.
How do you come to that conclusion? Did you talk with a lot member of BLM to know this? "Man this guy did a lot of research to come to this conclusion... He spent hours and hours on social media and talked with thousands of BLM member to see that they hate white people... This guy is just a genius, hella genius" Just some stupid allegation from your ass!
I can't show they care about killed unknown white people because it just don't happen.
If it is real, SHOW IT.
Yes, but you are obviously not one of them. You rather want to disgrace the movement and trying to downplay the problem according to your posts. Obviously in that case it is justified to be upset to you...
I give you another example. A white guy was rescued by a BLM-Member in London. Does it mean that all BLM-Member give a shit about white people... No. On the other side with your example... also not.
What is your point? That means that you are with my idea.
Who was this member it is a person who rescues people?
My point is you can`t generalize based on some circumstances that BLM-Member don`t give a shit about white people... the same logic applies also to my example. Just because a member of BLM saved a white guy, doesn`t mean that all the BLM movement gives shit for whites people. I was hoping with this example you would understand, you pretty mush generalized with your comment...
It is true I generalized, but anyways my idea in majority is right: the majority of them don't care about killed unknown white people.
Honestly your argumentation is mind-blowing. I rather stop, then getting brain damage.
How am I disgracing the movement and downplaying the problem according to my posts? Please, do show us all where did I do that lol
Not caring =/= disgracing and/or downplaying a movement.
Exceptions don't make the rule. You're trying to counter an argument by using an extreme case.
Yes, digging up a 5 year old statistic is sure to prove your point. You might as well go all the way and use slavery as an example.
Ookla here is the video of the old man.
Wtf I just searched via Google and the first image is him it's not that hard to find it.
It is there:
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/two-buffalo-police-officers-suspended-after-incident-in-niagara-square-that-left-protester-injured
Too bad this was posted on HearthPWN, a website about Hearthstone. Hearthstone is a game where you can chat only with friends and on ladder you have 6 different emotes to communicate while your opponent can easily mute those. So, I don't really care about any toxicity being reduced, since Hearthstone isn't really a game where the toxicity is clearly visible.
And I don't care about the rest of the post because it's basically saying that racism is bad and that fact I already knew before.
Does the slogan "save the sea turtles" mean "fuck all other aquatic animals". No it doesn't. So why are you using that same stupid ass logic here?
Maybe because black/white/green people all belong to the same specie. Why differentiate? I Thought we all wanted the same treatment, regardless of our skin color.
It's because things reached a boiling point. If you've been paying any attention at all, this didn't just happen. This was decades in the making dude.
Did you seriously just say there is nothing wrong with being a white nationalist? Being a nationalist is fucking terrible. Nationalism is always entrenched in hate and it's not to be confused with patriotism.
You're decrying white nationalism and praising a black supremacist movement at the same time, kid.
I thank blizzard for all the anti racism things that they do behind the scenes that I, as a player never see. I was curious if your voice actors, whenever possible, have accents similar to their natural speaking voice. i.e. someone with a Jamaican similar voice character with no ties to that culture. That just seems odd to me. other than that, I've had people send friend request only to spread racist remarks. why is there no way to report them? Why is it you can only report a friends battletag? They unfriend you immediately. Kinda feels like the system is giving them a voice.