EA’s ‘Marvel’s Black Panther’ Narrative Designer Responds After Video Resurfaces Of Her Bragging That Previous Title ‘ValiDate’ Had “No White People” On Dev Team: “I Had Fears Of Certain Treatment Towards My Marginalized Workers”
Spencer Baculi
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After a video resurfaced in which she could be seen bragging about how she intentionally avoided hiring “white people” for her previous title ValiDate, current associate narrative designer for EA subsidiary and Marvel’s Black Panther developer Cliffhanger Games Dani LaLonders has responded to her critics by claiming that she solely hired “the best possible people for the job”.
As previously reported, per a recording of the event which recently found its way to public attention thanks to LaLonders’ previous employment with the infamous Sweet Baby Inc., LaLonders admitted during her ‘One Year in the Industry’ talk at the 2021 Game Devs of Color Expo that her visual novel ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area, “has a team of mostly – all – people of color. We have no white people on our team. I did that because I wanted to create a safe environment and I know the best way for an environment to be safe is to be around people who are just like me.”
“And I’m not saying that white people in the industry are creating unsafe environments,” she continued. “I’m not saying that, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that sometimes it is hard to work with white people because they think that something may be okay, but it was really a microaggression, and no one wants to deal with that when they’re trying to make a game that they love.”
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However, after facing backlash to her blatantly racist rhetoric, LaLonders has now taken to claiming that her words taken out of context.
Taking to her personal Twitter account on March 22nd, LaLonders retweeted a clip of her talk as shared by fellow user @LibsOfTikTok and asserted, “Okay, let’s address this. In this video, I very clearly stated that the team for ValiDate is mostly people of color because I wanted to have a team of people who reflected on the game we were working on. If you played ValiDate, you understand why this was important.”
“This video is a bit outdated (recorded in the summer of 2021),” she continued. “ValiDate was released in September of 2022. From when this video was recorded to release, we had a few white developers join our team to help us with some music and audio needs.”
“Nowhere in this video did I say we don’t hire white people or that I hate white people,” said LaLonders. “I very clearly said we wanted to have a team that reflected the values of the game we were making. As a lead, you pick the best people possible for the job.”
“In this case, the best people for the job were the people who understood the kind of game we were making,” she claimed. “Developers working on a game full of queer characters who understand the importance of queerness in games that is realistic and respectful towards queer people.”
Turning to how “In the latter half of the video, I spoke about micro-aggressions in the workplace,” LaLonders asserted, “If you are a person of color, you understand precisely what I meant. That being said, I am very well aware that white people are not the only ones who can commit micro-aggressions in the workplace.”
“Micro-aggressions can be committed by anyone towards anyone else in the workplace,” she explained. “But in the context of what I was talking about, I had fears of certain treatment towards my marginalized workers in the workplace. I wanted my team to feel safe while working on ValiDate.”
Next, LaLonders addressed how “the way [Libs of TikTok] posted this video made it seem like I am the lead developer/hiring director at Cliffhanger Games,” clarifying “I am not. My title is an Associate (junior) Narrative Designer. I don’t have any power in terms of hiring and never had.”
“I have also only been working at Cliffhanger for about nine months,” she elaborated. “This video pre-dates my time at Cliffhanger by two years. Again, this video is old and does not reflect my current values or the current reality of my company, Veritable Joy Studios.”
Winding down her thoughts, LaLonders implored the public, “Before I end this thread, please let this be a lesson for everyone to do some research before they post. I have seen a lot of misinformation posted about this situation from journalists, content creators, and even TikTok lawyers.”
“Misinformation spreads like a wildfire,” the narrative designer stated. “Misinformation has led people to be massively racist towards me and my company. Spamming my socials, email, and even my LinkedIn with anti-black racism, death threats, images of lynchings, the KKK, and other racist imagery.”
“All of this to say, I am sorry if I made you upset in any way with the contents of this video,” LaLonders ultimately concluded. “I hope this explanation clears things up. Have a nice day everyone.”
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