{"id":32562,"date":"2022-06-01T20:21:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T20:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ea-staff-threaten-walkout-over-lack-of-statements-during-pride-month\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T20:21:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T20:21:42","slug":"ea-staff-threaten-walkout-over-lack-of-statements-during-pride-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ea-staff-threaten-walkout-over-lack-of-statements-during-pride-month\/","title":{"rendered":"EA staff threaten walkout over lack of statements during Pride Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<aside>\n<p class=\"section-title\">Share this article<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Employees at Electronic Arts have threatened a walkout over the company&#8217;s lack of action during Pride Month. <\/p>\n<p>The plan was expressed in a message sent to EA&#8217;s internal Slack group, seen by <em>GamesIndustry.biz<\/em>in which staff expressed joint concern about the publisher&#8217;s vague plans to support LGBTQ + initiatives during June. <\/p>\n<p>In that same message, employees threatened to stage a walkout should the company not take sufficient action to back up a blog post about its upcoming celebrations for Pride. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we see the company rainbow-wash their logo without making any substantive statement in support of trans people being abused nationwide in the US and elsewhere, especially after stating that the company doesn&#8217;t want to make any statement not supported by the diverse viewpoints of our 13,000 employees, we collectively walk out on Friday, June 3rd, &#8220;the message read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just slapping a rainbow on our logo in June without any broader action will be unacceptable.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the message was shared, another email was sent to EA&#8217;s social teams that offered details on what employees can and cannot post during Pride month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As most of you know, when June 1 arrives, many companies lean into the Pride celebration &#8211; oftentimes with limited effort beyond rainbow washing their social account profiles,&#8221; the email said.  &#8220;As we head into the month, we want to ensure our efforts to celebrate pride are meaningful.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The email did not detail what specific action the company plans to take, but said that &#8220;more will be shared this week&#8221; on what EA has planned to celebrate Pride internally. <\/p>\n<p>It also contained guidance on what EA leaders, studios and franchises can do to support Pride externally. <\/p>\n<p>The guidelines, seen by <em>GamesIndustry.biz<\/em> state that messages and graphics shared online &#8220;may not be political in nature,&#8221; and asks for proposed copy \/ graphics to be submitted to EA&#8217;s corporation communications team for review before they are shared. <\/p>\n<p>It says EA &#8220;strongly recommends activities that go beyond verbalising support for Pride,&#8221; which includes sharing in-game activities pertaining to the cause, and pointing players towards resources to learn about Pride.  Employees are also encouraged to share other efforts EA has made historically to support Pride. <\/p>\n<p>In an FAQ further down, the email gives EA employees and brand social channels permission to tweet and retweet social posts in support of LGBTQIA + and trans rights, &#8220;providing it is authentic to your community and the brand.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>A staff member who preferred to remain anonymous, told us that the timeline of these events &#8220;feels very hectic and haphazardly put together in an attempt to prevent the walkout.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>This email follows a company roundtable that took place May 24, during which the company stated it wouldn&#8217;t take a stand on topics such as trans rights and abortion rights.  During the town hall, EA chief people officer Mala Singh said that the company will only speak out when it &#8220;actually has a positive impact,&#8221; and the message has a &#8220;consistent perspective,&#8221; across EA&#8217;s 13,000 strong global workforce.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing about the world today is there is a lot of division, we know this right, we see it every single day, but the thing that unites us is that we&#8217;re all here to make amazing games and experiences for our players, and that is how we have the most positive impact on the world, &#8220;Singh said at the time, as per a transcript obtained by Kotaku. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These things are hard and they&#8217;re personal and we all have our own perspectives and sometimes we won&#8217;t speak, and that will be upsetting and I understand that, we really do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Respawn boss Vince Zampella <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VinceZampella\/status\/1531699050285703168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1531699050285703168%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fembed%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1531699050285703168autosize%3D1\" target=\"_blank\">posted to tweet<\/a> in support of trans rights earlier this week. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Trans rights are human rights,&#8221; Zampella wrote.  &#8220;It is as simple as that. Respawn has grown on the principles of diversity, equality, and inclusion and strives to uphold those values. Let&#8217;s be better humans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> An EA employee has since said the walkout &#8211; originally intended to call attention to hypocrisy of rainbow-washing while refusing to make a broader public statement &#8211; was called off after EA leadership said it would not be adopting a company-wide rainbow logo this month for Pride.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n\t\tfunction runGoogleAnalytics(anonymous) {<\/p>\n<p>\tif (window.gaDone) return;<\/p>\n<p>\t(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){\n\t(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),\n\tm=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)\n\t})(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');<\/p>\n<p>\tvar args = {\n\t\t\"trackingId\": \"UA-5699723-1\",\n\t\t\"cookieDomain\": \".gamesindustry.biz\"\n\t};<\/p>\n<p>\tif(anonymous) {\n\t\targs[\"storage\"] = \"none\";\n\t}<\/p>\n<p>\tga('create', args);\n\tga('require', 'displayfeatures');\n\tga('require', 'linkid', 'linkid.js');<\/p>\n<p>\tif(anonymous) {\n\t\tga('set', 'anonymizeIp', true);\n\t}<\/p>\n<p>\tga('set', 'dimension5', 'europe');\t\n\t\t\t\t ga('set', 'dimension6', 'none');<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t ga('set', 'dimension1', 'news');\t\t\t ga('set', 'dimension2', 'development');\t\t\t ga('set', 'dimension3', 'Danielle Partis');\t\t\t ga('set', 'dimension4', 'no');\t\t\n\t\tga('set', 'dimension12', 'no');<\/p>\n<p>\tga('send', 'pageview');<\/p>\n<p>\tif ( window.location.href.substr(-11) == \"#justposted\" ) {\n\t\tga('send', 'event', 'Comments', 'Posted', '2022-06-01-ea-staff-threaten-walkout-over-lack-of-statements-during-pride-month', {\n\t\t\t'dimension1': 'news',\n\t\t\t'dimension2': 'development',\n\t\t\t'dimension3': 'Danielle Partis'\n\t\t});\n\t}<\/p>\n<p>\twindow.gaDone = true;<\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>\t\tfunction runComscore() {\n\tvar _comscore = _comscore || [];\n\t_comscore.push({ c1: \"2\", c2: \"8518622\" });\n\t(function() {\n\t\tvar s = document.createElement(\"script\");\n\t\tel = document.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\n\t\ts.async = true;\n\t\ts.src = \"https:\/\/sb.scorecardresearch.com\/beacon.js\";\n\t\tel.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);\n\t})();\n}<\/p>\n<p>window.PARSELY = window.PARSELY || {\n  autotrack: false,\n  onReady: function() {\n    PARSELY.updateDefaults({\n      data: {\n        user: 'unregistered'\n      }\n    });\n    PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView();\n  }\n};<\/p>\n<p>function runParsely() {\n  if (window.parselyDone) return;<\/p>\n<p>  (function(d) {\n    var b = d.body;\n    var e = d.createElement('script');\n    e.id = 'parsely-cfg';\n    e.src=\"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/gamesindustry.biz\/p.js\";\n    b.appendChild(e);\n  })(document);<\/p>\n<p>  window.parselyDone = true;\n}<\/p>\n<p>\t\tfunction runFacebookPixel() {<\/p>\n<p>\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\tdocument,'script','\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');<\/p>\n<p>\tfbq('init', '1863210500478936');\n\tfbq('track', 'PageView');<\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>\t\tfunction runLinkedinInsights() {<\/p>\n<p>  _linkedin_partner_id = \"2840722\";\n  window._linkedin_data_partner_ids = window._linkedin_data_partner_ids || [];\n  window._linkedin_data_partner_ids.push(_linkedin_partner_id);<\/p>\n<p>  (function() {\n    var s = document.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\n    var b = document.createElement(\"script\");\n    b.type = \"text\/javascript\";b.async = true;\n    b.src = \"https:\/\/snap.licdn.com\/li.lms-analytics\/insight.min.js\";\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(b, s);\n  })();<\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>\t\tfunction runTwitterPixel() {<\/p>\n<p>  !function(e,t,n,s,u,a){e.twq||(s=e.twq=function(){s.exe?s.exe.apply(s,arguments):s.queue.push(arguments);\n  },s.version='1.1',s.queue=[],u=t.createElement(n),u.async=!0,u.src=\"https:\/\/static.ads-twitter.com\/uwt.js\",\n  a=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0],a.parentNode.insertBefore(u,a))}(window,document,'script');<\/p>\n<p>  twq('init','o5k31');\n  twq('track','PageView');<\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>\t\tconst frames = window.frames;\nfor (let i = 0; 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The plan was expressed in a message sent to EA&#8217;s internal Slack group, seen by GamesIndustry.bizin which staff expressed joint concern about the publisher&#8217;s vague plans to support LGBTQ + initiatives during June. In that &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ea-staff-threaten-walkout-over-lack-of-statements-during-pride-month\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">EA staff threaten walkout over lack of statements during Pride Month<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[9],"tags":[15904],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.gnwcdn.com\/2022\/articles\/2022-06-01-17-26\/ea_tile_ea_stock_headers_04_layers_16x9.png.adapt.crop16x9.431p.png?ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.gnwcdn.com\/2022\/articles\/2022-06-01-17-26\/ea_tile_ea_stock_headers_04_layers_16x9.png.adapt.crop16x9.431p.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}