Dani Lalonders Acknowledges Non-Hiring of White Individuals to Foster a Safe Working Environment.
It has come to light that a developer involved in the development of Marvel’s Black Panther video game has a history of banning white individuals from working in the company and on projects.
The announcement of the Black Panther video game last summer highlighted its commitment to showcasing “diverse voices and perspectives.”
The game is being crafted by a fresh division of Electronic Arts, Cliffhanger Games, which has enlisted Dani Lalonders for the project’s development. Lalonders, described on her official website as an “associate narrative designer at Cliffhanger Games working on Black Panther,” is spearheading the narrative direction of the game.
A video from 2021 has resurfaced where Dani Lalonders admits to having “no white people on our team” and that she did that intentionally “to create a safe environment.”
“We have no white people on our team,” Lalonders said during a stream for the Game Devs of Color Expo in 2021 while working on ValiDate. “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.”
She continued, “I’m not saying white people in the industry are creating unsafe environments. I’m not saying that, that is not what I am saying. I’m saying sometimes it’s hard to work with white people because they think something [is] okay, but it’s really a microaggression.
She added, “And no one wants to deal what that while we’re trying to make a game that they love.”
This is Dani Lalonders, a nonbinary game developer. She was hired by @CliffhangerDevs to create a game based on @Marvel‘s #BlackPanther.
She says she doesn’t hire white people because they’re unsafe and it’s hard to work with them and only hires people of color.
Is this… pic.twitter.com/zVodAvagLN— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 12, 2024
What is the Marvel’s Black Panther game about?
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do,” said Kevin Stephens of Monolith Productions at the time of the announcement.
The company added, “As we begin this remarkable journey, we are excited to be working with Marvel Games to ensure that we craft every aspect of Wakanda, its technology, its heroes, and our own original story with the attention to detail and authenticity that the world of Black Panther deserves.
“It’s an incredibly rare opportunity to build a new team around the values of diversity, collaboration, and empowerment,” said Stephens. “We want our game to enable players to feel what it’s like to be worthy of the Black Panther mantle in unique, story-driven ways, and we want Cliffhanger Games to empower everyone on our team as we collaborate to bring this amazing world to life.”
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