Activision Blizzard Appoints Kristen Hines as Chief DEI Officer

[chorx]

It's the language of ESG. These people are absolutely mandatory in an ESG compliant workplace. Like it or not, this is most likely somebody that makes Microsoft very happy. We have heavy ESG people on our board where I work, they're very serious about their ESG topics. This kind of stuff is absolutely neccesary in an orginization the size of Acti/Blizz and it was probably the very first thing MS will scrutinize the second they appoint people to the acti/blizzard board.

[Soeroah]

But a person of colour has no trouble understanding those same nuances and experiences of white people? Huh?

No, but white people are generally in a better position for opportunities than non-whites, despite their lack of realising that (and generally are more likely to listen to each other's issues than a white person is to any of theirs, given how people react to this kind of news).

White people have their own problems that need to be addressed, but this situation is to try to bring non-white people up to their level. Other solutions will need to be implemented to help the white people with their own problems.

As others have noted, the best course of action would probably be a council of varied backgrounds -as equally represented as possible so people of one specific demographic can't simply override minorities.

[munkeyinorbit]

Isn't this getting out of hand? In a few years, non white people and females will have identity crisis because they don't know if they got where they got because of talent or gender / color. White people with talent will blame them and that will generate even more racism.

- So, she was the best one for the job?
- No sir, there was 3 more qualified people but they were Caucasian males.
- Ok! Good job then.

Imagine this conversation 20 years ago.

LOL. If that conversation happened today then the company could be sued. People think that way. I probably think that way about PoC. But the goal is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to do their jobs to the best if their ability. Yes. It has a large PR angle but representation is important. What's wrong with blizzard actively looking for qualified people that are underrepresented?

It's not about taking away from one set of people and giving to another. It's about giving opportunity to groups that have had a lack of opportunity. So what if the 32 yo white male misses out this time. If they are actually good then someone will hire them. As long as everyone has the same opportunity to prove they are the right fit for the company.

[Drusin]

Chief People Officer? What the fuck lol, how long has this position existed? (In general, not just at Blizzard)

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LOL. If that conversation happened today then the company could be sued. People think that way. I probably think that way about PoC. But the goal is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to do their jobs to the best if their ability. Yes. It has a large PR angle but representation is important. What's wrong with blizzard actively looking for qualified people that are underrepresented?

It's not about taking away from one set of people and giving to another. It's about giving opportunity to groups that have had a lack of opportunity. So what if the 32 yo white male misses out this time. If they are actually good then someone will hire them. As long as everyone has the same opportunity to prove they are the right fit for the company.

That shit is wack lol.
I probably wouldn't last long as a business owner because I'll always want the best people for the job no matter what they look like.

[craigw]

Chief People Officer? What the fuck lol, how long has this position existed? (In general, not just at Blizzard)

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That shit is wack lol.
I probably wouldn't last long as a business owner because I'll always want the best people for the job no matter what they look like.

dude you cant hire the best candidates for the job anymore. it has to be based on what hole they prefer to fuck, what sex organ they wish they had, what color skin they have, and what gender you prefer to play make believe as. the best candidates could be one of those described. but when dealing with a small percentage of people compared to the masses they probably arent the best. not even close to being the best.

[Biomega]

Isn't this getting out of hand? In a few years, non white people and females will have identity crisis because they don't know if they got where they got because of talent or gender / color. White people with talent will blame them and that will generate even more racism.

- So, she was the best one for the job?
- No sir, there was 3 more qualified people but they were Caucasian males.
- Ok! Good job then.

Imagine this conversation 20 years ago.

Just would like to point out that while this is a very commonly brought argument, it misses the point entirely.

One of the big problems is that you can't just TELL who's "best qualified" for a job. There's so many factors at play, many of which aren't directly comparable, that it's almost impossible to clearly distinguish top applicants based on merit alone. This isn't just a case of, say, comparing some single score - "oh you scored 60 and they scored 61, so we're taking them", that kind of deal. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS, pretty much ever and anywhere.

What happens is you whittle down the pool of applicants to a handful of candidates, all of whom are entirely qualified for the job by a bunch of metrics. And then you make decisions based on subjective factors, like weighing certain facts based on personal experience and opinion, and so on.

Now what used to happen (and still often happens) is that somehow miraculously the normative (white, straight, often male, etc.) candidate just so happened to be picked significantly more often. And, again, this is in a pool where you CAN'T just decide on objective criteria. This has been tested again and again in many studies (e.g. by swapping names in resumes for "stereotypically black" names and watching acceptance numbers plummet compared to the same resume with a "white" name), and is similarly backed by historical data (where e.g. graduation rates don't translate into hiring success, and many other metrics). What's noteworthy here is that this usually is NOT the result of active, malicious racism - there isn't some white supremacist hiding in HR just waiting to sabotage any applicant who "sounds" black. This is an unconscious bias that creeps in as the result of a long legacy of racial inequality, where you find any number of seemingly innocuous reasons why certain candidates just "feel better" than others, which somehow again miraculously happens to fall among racial divides a lot of the time.

That's why quotas exist. They serve to counter an unconscious bias much more so than deliberate racial prejudice (which still exists, of course, but isn't usually the majority driving factor). The goal is to achieve a state in which those unconscious biases are slowly pushed more towards equality, by encouraging a new normal in which the presence of more diversity becomes so established in people's minds that they no longer unintentionally gravitate towards racial bias when making decisions.

At the end of the day, quotas aren't any more unfair than biases - "they only got picked because they're a PoC!" is a popular complaint against them, but do keep in mind that "they DIDN'T get picked because they're a Poc!" has been a lived reality for countless people FOR DECADES. There isn't a quick, easy fix to this. It will take overcorrection - which isn't fair, that's true, but neither is unconscious racial bias. If there was a more fair solution that magically turns everything around, we'd use it. But there isn't one. Not a practical, equitable, and realistic one in any case.

And as I said earlier: these supposed scenarios of "well sorry Mr. Harvard graduate, you happen to be white and so we're hiring this highschool dropout instead because quotas say so!" just do not exist anywhere except in the heads of Fox News pundits.

[Culex]

I can't wait to see what this devolves into. The bigots have been summoned.

Ironically the people calling out others as bigots are usually the biggest ones themselves.

[Wolfie of Medivh]

Every country is founded with bigotry of some kind. The USA is no worse than any other.

No, not really. Most countries before us were not founded in an event so much as they became free either by right of history, or via military means strictly. The US became a country via a war, yes, but also by setting up a written Constitution - and unlike most other nations who did this, ours had very clear language approving of slavery and telling a huge swath of the US population they were 3/5 of a person. Then we fought a war with the backdrop of slavery, but afterwards made no provision to help the newly free actually make some wealth to go forward. And then they got locked into Jim Crow which was Slavery by another name. Red lining was a Federal Government policy for most of the 20's through the 80's. One major political party (Well, first one, then the other) were inherently racist by appealing to white southerners.

Basically, no, we really were worse and a lot of people still want that.

[TheRevenantHero]

Ironically the people calling out others as bigots are usually the biggest ones themselves.

This is such an utterly asinine thing to say. Just "I know you are but what am I?" level bullshit.

[Wolfie of Medivh]

dude you cant hire the best candidates for the job anymore. it has to be based on what hole they prefer to fuck, what sex organ they wish they had, what color skin they have, and what gender you prefer to play make believe as. the best candidates could be one of those described. but when dealing with a small percentage of people compared to the masses they probably arent the best. not even close to being the best.

I'd think when dealing with diversity being of a minority would probably be a benefit.

[Culex]

This is such an utterly asinine thing to say. Just "I know you are but what am I?" level bullshit.

Thank you for proving my point.

[Wolfie of Medivh]

I saw this link on Twitter, saw the lady's picture and just knew there'd be some gold old fashioned whataboutism and racism here and boy howdy it's a bumper crop.

[TheRevenantHero]

Thank you for proving my point.

You said that people calling others out on their bigotry are the actual bigots. My comment didn't prove your point. It's not bigoted to point out how someone's comment is asinine.

[munkeyinorbit]

As long as they don't veto qualified candidates in favor of whatever box needs to be checked that week I guess this is fine.

Implying that there are no qualified people that do check boxes is pretty ignorant tbh.

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You said that people calling others out on their bigotry are the actual bigots. My comment didn't prove your point. It's not bigoted to point out how someone's comment is asinine.

It is if it's used to help a bigoted opinion.

[Daedius]

Good luck to her, I'd still never buy a Blizzard product again.

[dirtboy]

Wokeness is a jobs programme.

[Drench]

So dumb they hire these racist morons. Thank god I don't live in cali. Must such to not get picked based on hard work and skill but skin color.

[exochaft]

Soooo... even while actively turning off the ESG flags in my brain while reading this, I still stopped here: "Hines will also partner across all gaming teams to ensure diverse and inclusive perspectives are included in game design, including storylines, character development, gameplay and community interaction." Not only should someone with that job description not even be touching those aspects, but I have a feeling that it's be design at this point.

If people are curious what the real motivation behind the people who want ESG, it's akin to what I quoted above. It's not about hiring practices and workplace safety, it's all about flexing power over and influencing corporations. What's going on here is very akin to the Soviet political officers, whose primary job was to keep the crews in line with the party line and disseminate propaganda, who can intervene when the political message and rules aren't being followed, and can even boss the CO around under certain pretenses. If you read the declassified CIA documents of internal job descriptions of political officers (https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docu...000100120009-7), it's pretty similar to the job Hines is taking on in scope and intention... but instead of being a Soviet-lead movement, this is a globalist movement with ESG being used as the controlling tool.

Part of the danger of ESG is that its global reach can lead to some extremely totalitarian/fascistic results. The whole Ukraine/Russia conflict already shows how this can be done: you get countries, financial institutions, etc. all on board to deny an individual or state (in this case, Russia) access to products/funds/anything by using something like ESG as an excuse and a threat. Such a system will force compliance of those who may disagree with the above actions, but being a part of the ESG system breeds fear that you may be the next target if you don't go along with the group goal. The only people who are above the system are those who run it behind the scenes, basically the ultra-rich and connected people. It's quite the irony that there are many people who cheer on such a system, thinking it to be implemented as an altruistic measure to make the world a better place... when history has taught us that such things never end well for everyday people.

Anyways, that was brief tangent while still being relevant to the topic. Blizz is just selling its soul even more at this point, and now it'll likely not even be able to focus on things that actually matter to its customers unless the 'political officers' say its okay. Even if you don't believe the analogy, just having another executive-type outsider influencing and giving directions in Blizz games at the ground-level is just a bad idea in general.

[tomolak]

Why are you waiting two months?

I've been guild leader for last two expacs. Some last obligations to my guildies need to be fulfilled. I'm estimating two months at most.

[Roar-Powah]

There you go folks, you don't need skill to be hired anymore.