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Phil Spencer Says The Gaming Industry Needs More Black Leaders

oldergamer

Member
A natural follow up question would be to ask Spencer what a "black" leader is. To identify a deficiency in a category, that category must be defined.

What is "black?" Does he want to apply the Drop Rule where any African ancestry makes a person black? What if the person has a Japanese mother and a half black/half white father? Does that make them black? Who decides?
if the simple goal is more diversity, why is it important to decide. Let that person decide how they want to be identified.
 

Aidah

Member
Just for the sake of it? Doesn't sound logical.

Appointing and hiring people based on strengths useful for the job, while completely ignoring irrelevant attributes, sounds more effective.
 
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zcaa0g

Banned
Has the thought occurred to him maybe there isn't a several black people interested in that particular line of work or that very specific job function? Maybe there is, maybe there isn't.

There needs to be more men in the fingernail polish leadership roles!
 

Woopah

Member
Gaming is already for everyone. People are already being hired for their individual merits rather than skin colour. 'Diversity' is a patronising crock of shit.
Nowhere in the the interview does Phil talk about hiring people based on skin colour.
The problem for advocates on one side and the other is to prove it is the case. Rallying against injustice or denying it is easier when you do not have to measure or prove anything.
The easier way, what some companies are doing and some people are demanding, to prove is mandate quotas and make an argument that you are still choosing the best of the best or people that are most suitable just out of the most suitables you are choosing based on skin color.

The idea of blind auditions was taken to ensure there were equal opportunities (for the upbringing... invest in poorer areas period), but now some activists are demanding racial aware auditions to enforce it somehow.
Quotas and mandates are completely the wrong approach in my opinion. You can have targets but the numbers are the least important part of inclusion and diversity. Things like blind CVs and investing in different areas are the type of thing I support.
 
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we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need more people like me

we don’t need you

we don’t need you

we don’t need you

we don’t need you

we don’t need you

we don’t need you

we don’t need you
 

rnlval

Member
I find it worrying that even people seeing the fallacies of identity politics are already (probably unconsciously) halfway there. If you didn’t have your PS and it was a white Nordic dude that typed it - would it be any less valuable to this discussion?

The clip was good though.
Identity politics removes the person's right to be identified to be whatever identity. My political position was left in the late 1990s and I haven't changed from a racial neutrality position. It's quite strange to see certain far-left idealogy looped back into skin color defined over means of production.
 

Fbh

Member
Hiring and promotions should always be based on merit, not race or skin colour.

If you want to strive for more diversity you shouldn't do so at the hiring/promoting stage, you should do so way earlier. If tech companies really cared and didn't just want another PR tool, they could come together to create robust support programs and scholarships for lower income families. If you make the pool of available talent more diverse, you can continue hiring 100% based on merit and your teams will still naturally become more diverse.
 

rnlval

Member
Hiring and promotions should always be based on merit, not race or skin colour.

If you want to strive for more diversity you shouldn't do so at the hiring/promoting stage, you should do so way earlier. If tech companies really cared and didn't just want another PR tool, they could come together to create robust support programs and scholarships for lower income families. If you make the pool of available talent more diverse, you can continue hiring 100% based on merit and your teams will still naturally become more diverse.
Also recognize that not everyone "can learn to code", hence the economy needs to be diverse which includes manufacturing and trades.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
These things should never be forced. I understand people may want such a thing, but such a thing should come naturally IMO. People should be hired based on their experience and talents. Not their race, gender, or otherwise.
 

Amiga

Member

During a recent interview with Xbox chief Phil Spencer, I asked him about this. His company, Microsoft, had made several pledges, including to do better by its Black employees, to recruit more Black workers to the tech giant, and to “double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States by 2025.”

That was in June, when everyone was talking about racial justice.

“One of the worries is you kind of get hyper-focused at a certain time, and the election comes along and months go by and you almost just kind of shift,” Spencer told me. “The conversation turns to something else. And I do think it’s something that we should come back to.”

We came back to it when we were speaking last month, during a conversation that was set up ostensibly to talk about the next generation of Xboxes, which we talked about plenty. We put the Xbox hardware talk on pause, though, when I asked how Microsoft was following through on its pledges. At one point in the exchange Spencer and I talked about Black people’s prominence—or lack thereof—in game studios and in leadership.

“The area where I think we really need to focus more as an industry, including my own team, are, as you said, those visible leaders,” Spencer said. “Because there was a generation where this didn’t happen.”

For years, Spencer was noting, Black people have not been given many chances to lead in gaming. Other people—the implication being “white people”—have ascended in the ranks at Western game companies.

“And as those people move up inside of the organization, you get a lot of people like me,” Spencer said, acknowledging that he’s yet another white guy in power. “And we don’t need more people like me in our organization. We need a more diverse team. So I’d say, for our focus right now, I think about manager representation.”

Check the link for more.

this is the right thing to say if you want a career in anything. you don't have to actually do it. just memorize it and repeat it.
 
How about you don't hire someone based on their race? If you hire a black dude cause he's black your fucking discriminating against all the brown, Asian, and white people you racist.
 

ExKing

says GAF is a racist board but still wants to be a part of it...
How cool is it that as a black person you're only hired for your skin colour. 🙄 And why is it always about black people. There are more skin colours out there.

Are you just stupid, racist or both ?
Black are not hired - despite the skills - because stupid racist people like you don't want them around.

Easy to talk like this on a forum hidden in your basement, tell that at your work place... we'll see how it goes for you.

We need to have more legislation or incentives in place in the gaming industry because otherwise black people - and other minorities or women- are less hired.

Great to see Phil Jackson sees a problem ( better later than never ). He needs to act as well. The videogames Industry is too white and lacks diversity, that's just a simple fact.
 

GrayChild

Gold Member
i-grew-up-in-a-communist-country-without-the-freedom-30978544.png


Every time someone starts advocating for forced diversity, remember what Vavra said years ago.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
The issue here is instead of cultivating real change by starting at the root, help black kids get good educations, making programs in grade schools to sway them towards the sciences, incentives in colleges to take computer science.
Instead of that all these companies want is good pr at the moment and just spout bs that doesn’t make real sense.
 

rnlval

Member
Are you just stupid, racist or both ?
Black are not hired - despite the skills - because stupid racist people like you don't want them around.

Easy to talk like this on a forum hidden in your basement, tell that at your work place... we'll see how it goes for you.

We need to have more legislation or incentives in place in the gaming industry because otherwise black people - and other minorities or women- are less hired.

Great to see Phil Jackson sees a problem ( better later than never ). He needs to act as well. The videogames Industry is too white and lacks diversity, that's just a simple fact.
State-based racial control over means of production is racist i.e. failed race neutrality test. You haven't visited South Korea, Japan, and China videogame industry, and China's gaming industry rivals the US's.
 
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As usual, Phil Spencer just goes out to say what (a certain group of people) want to hear.

That has been his MO for ages now.
 

WakeTheWolf

Member

During a recent interview with Xbox chief Phil Spencer, I asked him about this. His company, Microsoft, had made several pledges, including to do better by its Black employees, to recruit more Black workers to the tech giant, and to “double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States by 2025.”

That was in June, when everyone was talking about racial justice.

“One of the worries is you kind of get hyper-focused at a certain time, and the election comes along and months go by and you almost just kind of shift,” Spencer told me. “The conversation turns to something else. And I do think it’s something that we should come back to.”

We came back to it when we were speaking last month, during a conversation that was set up ostensibly to talk about the next generation of Xboxes, which we talked about plenty. We put the Xbox hardware talk on pause, though, when I asked how Microsoft was following through on its pledges. At one point in the exchange Spencer and I talked about Black people’s prominence—or lack thereof—in game studios and in leadership.

“The area where I think we really need to focus more as an industry, including my own team, are, as you said, those visible leaders,” Spencer said. “Because there was a generation where this didn’t happen.”

For years, Spencer was noting, Black people have not been given many chances to lead in gaming. Other people—the implication being “white people”—have ascended in the ranks at Western game companies.

“And as those people move up inside of the organization, you get a lot of people like me,” Spencer said, acknowledging that he’s yet another white guy in power. “And we don’t need more people like me in our organization. We need a more diverse team. So I’d say, for our focus right now, I think about manager representation.”

Check the link for more.

Honestly, does Phil Spencer ever shut up? Just because it's now considered 'cool' and 'progressive' to parrot identity politics they all jump on the bandwagon. Do you remember when it was classed as discrimination to base your job hiring on someone's skin colour? Well now in upside down world in 2020 it's now stunning and brave!

This is why I will stick to PC. This poison (the politics) has seeped into all our entertainment but atleast with PC you can customise your experience to minimize exposure to it.

Just look at the film industry. I sit down with my fiance looking for what film to watch and I genuinely cannot find a decent film. This will happen to the games industry too. It's only a matter of time.
 
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Neo_game

Member


Raja Koduri's Intel Xe GPU team in India... Mostly Indians.

EK_C6Z6UUAEFKJx



Because he is in Intel India office. Pretty sure he works in Silicon Valley, US where majority, main work happens. I am sure various background people work there.
 
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I worked for a game company - not saying which - (HQ was in france). I had 17+ years of game development experience. Every single person in the company spoke english despite having offices in montreal and France. I shipped a few games there, I worked on a few projects in the concept phase that were praised by the person in charge of development in france, yet twice i was passed over for the lead producer role in my office. A lot of people i worked with thought i should have been at least offered it, and mentioned it to me a number of times. They loved me in that office and they really had no idea how many times i prevented people from quitting. Everyone wanted to work on my team.
I see that kind of story all the time--and you may very well deserve the position--the only problem is that happens to everyone of all backgrounds, all the time, as you said.
Diversity of thought is the most important part of diversity
I don't think that's always relevant either, sometimes you want more cohesion in your project team. In society as a whole sure.
Fully agree here. The way I read it, Phil is not talking about putting identify traits in job descriptions. Instead he is talking about black developers having the opportunity to advance to people manager roles so that, as you said, they have the opportunity to apply for leadership positions later down the road.
I think that this is the same thing... Promoting based on skin color is bad.
Raja Koduri's Intel Xe GPU team in India... Mostly Indians.
Indians probably don't consider themselves black you racist.
Are you Racially discriminating if you say nothing about wanting to hire with more diversity,
No

I just don't agree with quotas.
Funny thing is, I’m trying to think of prominent AAA black developers in this industry....and Jason and Tramell Ray Isaac were the only two who came to mind.
Look at all games development retrospective, they show "them" whenever they can.
 

oldergamer

Member
To all the people saying they dont like quotas, you might notice spencer just said he thinks we need "more" and didnt attach a quota at all. People jump to a conclusion that this means a specific number.
 
I hate this socjus shit. Within the last year I've noticed that I've stopped playing western stuff entirely because I either hear or see woke tankie agitprop that ruins the narrative or game. The left will be the death of creativity and expression in the west, guaranteed.
 

Forsythia

Member
Are you just stupid, racist or both ?
Black are not hired - despite the skills - because stupid racist people like you don't want them around.

Easy to talk like this on a forum hidden in your basement, tell that at your work place... we'll see how it goes for you.

We need to have more legislation or incentives in place in the gaming industry because otherwise black people - and other minorities or women- are less hired.

Great to see Phil Jackson sees a problem ( better later than never ). He needs to act as well. The videogames Industry is too white and lacks diversity, that's just a simple fact.

lolwut? Where am I saying I don't want black people around? I just think it's dumb that people will be hired just for their skin colour, but I guess that makes me racist somehow.
 
Assuming they are well qualified and are given an equal opportunity to compete for a leadership position, I see nothing wrong with that statement. Same goes for every industry.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
I think people shoul be chosen for their positions based solely on the skills and experience required on the said positions, but I might be wrong, maybe Snoop and Kanye might be indeed great assets that would push the XBox brand forward.
 

Piku_Ringo

Banned
To all the people saying they dont like quotas, you might notice spencer just said he thinks we need "more" and didnt attach a quota at all. People jump to a conclusion that this means a specific number.

And there will be more at MSFT. They already support BLM. And promised to address racial injustice and inequity. :giggle: :messenger_ok:
 

Woopah

Member
I think that this is the same thing... Promoting based on skin color is bad.
But you don't need to do that. Make sure black developers at your company have development opportunities, have your Recruitment team look into how they can get more black developers applying for roles at the company etc.

It's about giving people opportunities, not jobs. When it comes to choosing the right candidate to promote/hire, skin colour shouldn't matter.
 

Unknown?

Member
Time for me to become trans-racial. I'd become black with surgery for one of those cushy executive jobs. Or do I only need to identify as a race to be one these days?

In seriousness I think being not chosen due to skin or background is unfair and has been a thing that happens far too often. I know I wouldn't want to get a job based on knowing the management, being family, or any other reason. I'd want it because they felt I'd be a good fit. I dont think most black would want jobs given to them not based on their skill or character either.
 
He’s right but just saying it as someone in his position is enough. It’d be the wrong move to force higher a handful of people of questionable talent just because they’re black.
 
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duhmetree

Member
Keep hiring people based on what demographic box it checks instead of their qualifications. What a garbage and braindead take.... If there's a black developer/director/executive capable and deserving, THEY WILL BE HIRED.

Equal Opportunity. NOT. Equal Outcome.

It's a mental disorder.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Are Microsoft close to releasing something next week or something? Seem to be very vocal about everything lately.

Is it a Windows 10 update?
 
Could you explain or elaborate on this comment please. Because as it reads, it appears/seems as though you're saying black people are incompetent. And while I'm sure that's not what you mean, the ambiguity is problematic.

Im calling phil spencer incompetent.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
Where is that red button meme? Xbox fans turning on Woke spencer or ignoring him...
 

fermcr

Member
Talent before woke.

Don't hire someone because he/she is black/white/green/yellow/etc. Hire someone because they are talented, no matter the color or sex.
 
I believe 100% in giving everyone a fair shot and equal opportunity but saying things like they will double the amount of black employees by a certain date is a weird goal. Focus on actually evaluating the talent. Also why doesn't this apply to other races of people? Why not double indian workers by that time?
 

AmuroChan

Member
I believe 100% in giving everyone a fair shot and equal opportunity but saying things like they will double the amount of black employees by a certain date is a weird goal. Focus on actually evaluating the talent. Also why doesn't this apply to other races of people? Why not double indian workers by that time?

Because the woke views Asians basically as white people. Notice that when they show data on income equality by race, they always conveniently excludes the column for Asians. Asians are the one minority group that contradicts almost every narrative that minorities can't succeed in life because of racial inequality and systemic racism.
 

Reallink

Member
Phil's just mad he hired Bonnie Ross to waste half a billion dollars when he could have bought the black people who made black spiderman at Insomniac for a fraction of that and got a shipping launch game out of it.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I can see black people thrive and bring so much to the table. You find plenty with insane sense of humor and fun factor that could bring cool things into the gaming industry. It doesn't need to be leadership, let that to the ones that build their own companies or climb the ladder eventually.
 
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