One of the developers for the upcoming Black Panther video game once admitted she doesn’t hire white people because ‘it’s hard to work with them.’
Dani Lalonders, an associate narrative designer at EA-owned Cliffhanger Games, made the comments in 2021, when she was working for a different video game named ValiDate, which follows 13 characters in Jersey City as they navigate dating.
The comments have since gone viral, after being shared by the right-wing account Libs of TikTok, sparking outrage on social media among critics who say the comments are racist and proof of discrimination.
‘ValiDate has a team of all people of color. We have no white people on our team,’ she shared during a talk at the Game Devs of Color Expo.
‘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.
Dani Lalonders, a developer for the upcoming Black Panther video game, once admitted she doesn’t hire white people because ‘it’s hard to work with them’
Not much is known about the Black Panther video game, which was announced last July by Cliffhanger games, part of EA
She added: ‘I’m not saying white people are creating unsafe environments, I’m saying sometimes it’s hard to work with white people because sometimes they think something is okay, but it’s actually a microaggression.
‘And no one wants to deal with that while you’re trying to make a game that they love.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to Lalonders, Marvel, EA and Veritable Joe Studios, which oversaw ValiDate, for comment on this story.
Tesla CEO, and X owner, Elon Musk was one of the social media users to react to Lalonder’s comments, simply replying with an exclamation mark.
Erfan Ebrahimnia, a web developer, said: Lead Developer of new Black Panther game admitted to hire based on skin color.
‘Where did we go wrong as a society that someone like this can be proudly racist online without any repercussions?
‘ValiDate has a team of all people of color. We have no white people on our team,’ she shared during a talk at the Game Devs of Color Expo
‘This person clearly isn’t able to lead any team and should be fired immediately.’
Not much is known about the Black Panther video game, which was announced last July by Cliffhanger games, part of Electronic Arts (EA).
EA described it as an ‘an original, third-person, single-player game.’
Gamers have started slamming Cliffhanger Games, leaving comments in its X account denouncing Lalonders’ comments.
Ironically, the company had posted advertising that they were looking for ‘diverse, fearless artists to collaborate’ on the Black Panther game.
‘Your game just officially bombed even before it released,’ read one comment.
‘Is yalls main developer for this game still practicing racist practices?’ asked another.
A third added: ‘No one is going to buy your racist game.’