Reacting swiftly to allegations of racism from an African-American contractor who worked at the company during the summer, social game developer, Kixeye, fired four employees yesterday. The terminated personnel include the former contractor’s team manager and three other unnamed staff members.
Kixeye is a developer of online strategy and combat games with over five million monthly active users. The company’s popular titles include Backyard Monsters, Battle Pirates, and War Commander. Kixeye expects to generate more than $100 million in revenue in 2012.
Speaking about the growing scandal, Kixeye CEO, Will Harbin, made the company’s position clear on Twitter:
“I immediately terminated the manager of the team in question and then three other employees who violated company standards as well.”
“I am doing my best to create a company where our employees love to work, with a culture of openness and tolerance to different points of view, styles, races, gender, orientation, religion and cultures. It turns out that a few bad apples weren’t living up to the standards that the rest of us have set for our company.”
The uproar began when the former contractor published his comments on Tumbler (subsequently removed) earlier this week, complaining of racial abuse at Kixeye. The post, made under the name of Qu33riousity, is quite long and passionately angry It contained disturbing details of what the contractor felt was a pervasive pattern of behavior at the company. Here is an excerpt:
“The company occupies three floors of a swank office building on Bush St. All three floors are filled with white men: straight, young, and tech savvy. In start up fashion, there is much overindulgence, much money thrown to the wind to keep workers docile and loyal to the company. Coffees, teas, snacks everywhere. And not snacks from the corner store: luna bars, lara bars, cliff bars, other organic “healthy” snack bars, organic chips, PIRATE BOOTY, vitamin water, organic coconut water, every kind of soda, expensive flavored fizzy water, cereals, nuts, yogurt, string cheese, red bulls, peanut butter filled pretzels, those starbucks frap drinks, bananas, apples, peaches, and to top it off catered lunch twice a week for the entire office of 200+ employees. The last day I worked there the entire office ate fried chicken and waffles, grits, macaroni & cheese, two kinds of soup, and salad.”
“Despite the material incentives, I couldn’t get past how ethically abject this company is. I would peer out the window from the 18th floor at the reflections of these neoliberal colonizers (read: gentrifiers) buzzing around me. They laugh and make bad jokes about dicks and tits. They say the word “bro” every other sentence. They poke at the young Mexican boy Jose a few seats down, and he laughs. He takes it all, smiling. I would wonder whether or not he goes home everyday with a head full of jagged frustration. I didn’t know what thought was more unsettling: him going home everyday with muscles forever tense and a memory that can never totally clear its cache of verbal stabbings by older, taller, arrogant white men, or the thought of him going home feeling that all is well and normal in his workplace. Later, Jose jokes about beating his wife in a group chat on Skype. He is 22 and he is actually married. My expression is blank, but my head is filled with horror as he receives several lol’s in reply…..”
“This story is to be continued. After being encouraged by many friends, even my barber, I’m in the process of taking legal action. I had a whole month of potential creative and community building energy stripped from me for the sake of this company’s profits. That shit ain’t cool. I cannot afford to take white people’s shit anymore. That’s been my mantra this year, and I’m still on it, even if that means getting the law involved. If the revolutions is to be funding, I want it to be funding from the pockets of racist venture capitalists like these folks!”
This is not the first time that allegations of discriminatory behavior have been made against Kixeye. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kixeye’s “video bashing rivals like Zynga and EA and mocking women who played games like FarmVille was widely cited as an example of sexism in the gaming industry.”
The entire incident is another sad commentary on the state of affairs between the races in our nation. If we accept the contractor’s comments as accurate and truthful, it shows a shocking level of hatred and insensitivity on the part of the white employees in question. It also shows the degree of all consuming anger their hateful behavior has inspired in the victim of their attacks. It is apparent that the company and the former employee are jockeying for position it what may prove to be an ugly and contentious legal action. When racism is involved, there are no winners and everyone is diminished.
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
This guy sounds like the usual little bitch, being black, with the usual but much more subtle hints of his own racism. Sorry people got fired but its the 2012 and only minorities are allowed to be racist. This guy must not have worked much in his life to not know how people act at work.
Also, as is usual he tries to suck money from them for something that doesn't effect him, we didn't hear anything targeted at him if it was he would whine and bitch and say he would call Obama
Fire the CEO while youre at it. Banning accounts with no proof is bullshit.