'Sometimes it is hard to work with white people': Black Panther game designer admits to not wanting to hire white people

A story writer for a major video game corporation has previously admitted that she purposely did not want any white people on her production team because they commit microaggressions and she prefers to be around people who are "just like" her.

Danielle Lalonders is an associate narrative designer for Cliffhanger Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, a gigantic video game company with nearly 13,000 global employees taking in over $7 billion in revenue per year.

According to her own website, Lalonders is working on a video game version of Black Panther, the Marvel movie about a specifically black superhero living in an ethno-state.

As it turns out, Lalonders has allegedly made a series of comments about whether or not white people can experience racism and even said she would prefer not to work with white people.

During a 2021 video conference for the Game Devs of Color Expo, a YouTube page dedicated to the celebration of game developers based on the color of their skin, Lalonders commented on the team she worked with for another project.

"But who is your team?" Lalonders read along with a slideshow. "All people of color. We have no white people on our team. I did that because I wanted to create a safe environment," she explained.

"I know the best way for the 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. I'm not saying that. That is not what I'm saying. I am 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 while you're trying to make a game that they love."

The game designer was speaking about ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area, a video game described as "a romance visual novel and dating simulator." The game featured a character who is "a 28-year-old bigender mom of two and HR specialist, trying to ignore his immense baggage, while dating and being a parent."

In the same video, Lalonders claimed to be a "black, non-binary woman" who wasn't taken seriously in the industry. She then said that if her dating game were made by a white man then it would have been wildly distributed.

"Is it 'cause I'm black? I mean it probably is, but like, you know what I mean? Like it just kinda sucks that people saw me, and they're just like, 'whatever we're not gonna take her seriously.' But if a white man made ValiDate, it would be f**kin' everywhere."

On her now private X account, Lalonders allegedly went on rants in early March 2024 about gamers being racist and claimed that white people cannot experience racism.

As That Park Place reported, one alleged post stated that "gamers have been really racist lately" and Lalonders has been "trying to ignore it, buts it's hard not to."

Another alleged post, presented as is, said that Lalonders "just stopped taking yall seriously when yall start running around saying white people can experience racism because i did not suffer through 2020 for yall to act like you werent an ally to blm 4 years later."

One of several other statements attributed to Lalonders simply stated that "if you think you can be racist to white people, you literally are [racist]."

Lalonders and Electronic Arts were both contacted for comment regarding views around hiring practices, Lalonders' statements, and whether or not such statements are being reflected in the production of the new Black Panther game.

No replies were provided, but this article will be updated with any applicable answers.

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