A recently resurfaced, now-viral clip is causing headaches for the woman working on a video game adaptation of Marvel’s incredibly popular African superhero Black Panther.
In the clip, Dani Lalonders, an associate narrative designer at Cliffhanger Games, makes it clear that, in the past, she has intentionally avoided hiring any white people.
What pushed the clip into full virality was the fact that it was shared by the popular conservative account Libs of TikTok to its 2.9 million followers on Tuesday.
The clip now has 5.7 million views as of the writing of this article.
This is Dani Lalonders, a nonbinary game developer. She was hired by @CliffhangerDevs to create a game based on @Marvel‘s #BlackPanther.
She says she doesn’t hire white people because they’re unsafe and it’s hard to work with them and only hires people of color.
Is this… pic.twitter.com/zVodAvagLN
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 12, 2024
Lalonders admits in the clip to intentionally blocking white people from her team in order to help “create a safe environment.”
“I know the best way for an environment to be safe is to be around people who are just like me,” she said, seemingly advocating for echo chambers.
“And I’m not saying that white people in the industry are creating unsafe environments,” she continued. “I am saying that sometimes it is hard to work with white people because they may think that something may be okay, but it was really a micro aggression.”
Do you think illegal anti-white discrimination is common today?
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She added: “No one wants to deal with that while they’re trying to make a game they love.”
Lalonders has turned her X account private since the clip went viral.
Dexerto notes that it is unclear whether or not these race-based hiring practices were used by Cliffhanger Games, or if it was simply a practice Lalonders employed in the past.
So far, the clip has generated intense backlash, but that may be far from its only consequence. By having an employee admittedly using race-based preferential hiring practices, the Seattle-based Cliffhanger Games may have violated federal U.S. law.
First, to be clear, the viral clip is from years ago and there’s nothing linking these specific anti-white practices to Cliffhanger Games or the “Black Panther” game currently.
That being said, that doesn’t make Lalonders’ purported hiring practices any less racist — or legal.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is “illegal for an employer to discriminate against a job applicant because of his or her race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.”
The commission further notes “an employer may not refuse to give employment applications to people of a certain race.”
That includes excluding applicants of a certain race (like white) because of certain “stereotypes” associated with them (such as “white people use micro aggressions”).
There is currently no release window for the “Black Panther” video game.
