Former Member of DEI Group 'Black Girl Gamers' Comes Out, Blasts Their Racism
If you’ve been following the recent controversies revolving wokeness and DEI showing up in the video gaming sphere, you’ve doubtlessly heard of Sweet Baby Inc. — a narrative consultancy whose involvement with many of the more controversial titles has led to a boycott of games with SBI involvement from gamers on social media.
However, pay closer attention and another name begins to emerge: Black Girl Gamers. It, too, is a narrative consultancy that helps developers with characters and storylines that have DEI undertones. It didn’t start out that way, however — and one of its former members is striking back with stories of how she was hounded from the group because she refused to engage in racial groupthink.
Black Girl Gamers — best known for its narrative consultancy on the Square Enix title “Forspoken,” which has been a commercial disappointment — is currently threatening both former “World of Warcraft” team lead Mark “Grummz” Kern and entertainment news outlet That Park Place with lawsuits for reporting on the company’s purported discriminatory hiring practices and other problematic measures.
BGG’s own website claims to be 100% Minority Operated.
I’ve seen “Minority Owned” but what does Minority Operated mean? It is unclear if they mean 100% of management, or 100% of all staff:
The 100% Minority operated claim, the SEALED job board, and the lack of a hiring policy… pic.twitter.com/rfm1GYcSs6
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 27, 2024
Right now, Black Girl Gamers, the SBI-style game and movie consulting group, has issued new legal threats including a Cease and Desist.
Meanwhile, they have mobilized their 10,000+ members to harass and call critics “racists” in an attempt to deflect from the allegations of…
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 29, 2024
According to That Park Place, Black Girl Gamers made the usual boilerplate statements about dealing with “false” claims of “discriminatory hiring practices” and insisted it “operates as a contracting organization that collaborates with both freelancers and content creators from all backgrounds to work on various projects and initiatives to amplify underrepresented voices in gaming and make the community more inclusive.”
Contrary to the allegations in the article, Black Girl Gamers has contracted freelancers of all races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnic backgrounds. (3/8)
— Black Girl Gamers (@blackgirlgamers) March 26, 2024
However, according to one former Black Girl Gamers member, this is hardly the case — and she was chased from the group because she didn’t fit the ideological mold of the groupthink chamber.
Gothix — the pseudonym of a Twitch streamer who worked with the organization before it was a consultancy — said in a social media post that, “As [a] former Black Girl Gamers member, I can confidently say these people are full of crap.
“They do NOT care about diversity. They promptly kicked me out for being ‘anti-black’ AKA, not making an idol out of my skin color and refusing to hate white people.”
As an former Black Girl Gamers member, I can confidently say these people are full of crap. They do NOT care about diversity. They promptly kicked me out for being “anti-black” AKA, not making an idol out of my skin color and refusing to hate white people. https://t.co/ujtx5dRver
— (Vanessa) Gothix (@GothixTV) March 27, 2024
“I was harassed for MONTHS after the fact, and received an onslaught of vitriol from many of their BLACK members. You know how BGG responded? They blocked me and literally scrubbed my existence off of their platforms,” she added.
I was harassed for MONTHS after the fact, and received an onslaught of vitriol from many of their BLACK members. You know how BGG responded? They blocked me and literally scrubbed my existence off of their platforms.
— (Vanessa) Gothix (@GothixTV) March 27, 2024
Now, mind you, Gothix is promoting a documentary about her experience in this ugly side of the gaming community — but in an appearance on the Side Scrollers Podcast last week, she made a strong case that the company wasn’t just racist in their hiring practices but actively weeded out applicants with diverging viewpoints.
“This is the problem … when people make skin color into an idol,” she said. “They worship their skin color and they think that that’s their identity, and then they have to make up all these weird rules and regulations about what it means to be black.”
Gothix said she was approached by the group to work with them around 2019 back when the organization was a small coterie of, well, black girl gamers.
“It was very small compared to the entity that it is now,” she said. “So we would have collaborations — like, I would stream on their Twitch page, we would do interviews with each other, we would do Discord calls, and that was pretty much the extent of my involvement.”
However, she said that she began to get backlash for saying things that other members of the group deemed “anti-black” — which were more or less her non-woke opinions, not racism, according to the streamer.
“You guys are saying this is a safe space and I don’t feel safe,” she said in the interview.
As for her tweet, she clarified that the group does not care “about diversity that matters.”
“Unless it’s diversity of thought, I don’t see the point of promoting diversity,” Gothix said.
.@GothixTV discusses her experience with #BlackGirlGaming@bx_on_x@StutteringCraig@BlabberingC pic.twitter.com/pFJgkbrNL7
— Side Scrollers Podcast (@SideScrollerPod) March 28, 2024
Companies like Square Enix might not see the point of it, either, at least after the commercial performance of “Forspoken.”
In February of 2023, Square Enix president and representative Yosuke Matsuda admitted during a financial results announcement that reviews of the title “have been challenging” and “its sales have been lackluster,” although “the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities.”
Note that the diversity quotient did not get mentioned as adding value — and the game’s dialogue came under repeated attack from critics, who found it leaden and awkward.
And, as for those legal actions against its detractors? Good luck with that one, Black Girl Gamers. In fact, given the evidence, one might safely assume the biggest legal predicament might, in fact, end up being theirs.
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