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It's been 8 months since BBC's PoC Meet & Greet and it's probably a great time to revisit the thread I made about it as well as share more thoughts, especially in thinking about anti-racism and equity.
Please read it: https://twitter.com/ajitgeorgeSB/status/1179803759746007040
Please read it: https://twitter.com/ajitgeorgeSB/status/1179803759746007040
Since the PoC Meet & Greet, I personally know of at least 2 people who got fulltime employment with gaming companies directly or indirectly because of the Meet & Greet. I can think of at least 30+ other opportunities that arose out of the Meet & Greet.
Those are only the ones I personally know of or heard about. In some cases, it's one person getting multiple freelance gigs. In other cases, it's a PoC getting a gig who wasn't even there but was referred to by an attendee. The ripple effect is both fascinating and incredible.
Beyond the immediacy of the jobs, there were also new friendships and relationships built from it, and the paired efforts of the BOEP, the BBC Scholarship and the PoC Dinner. These efforts worked in synergy with one another, compounding the impact.
If you read the previous thread I made about the PoC Meet & Greet, you'll understand most jobs are acquired through networks and most white people have no PoCs in their networks. That means they have no PoCs in their network to reach out about hiring.
So they hire only white people. And that perpetuates the cycle.
In the modern age, this may be slightly mitigated by them trying to hire off of social media. But that runs into another set of problems.
In the modern age, this may be slightly mitigated by them trying to hire off of social media. But that runs into another set of problems.
Hiring via social media means those with the largest footprint/followers are repeatedly approached. It's the same few people all the time.
And large social media footprints do not equate to the skillsets you're looking for in a particular role.
And large social media footprints do not equate to the skillsets you're looking for in a particular role.
Those skilled at building up social media platforms are often more skilled at online activism, advocacy and/or community leadership. Those are great skills, but does not mean they are also good at art, writing, editing, or designing games.
But when white people realize they have a serious problem in their workplace and then begin looking to hire PoCs, they often turn to the easiest and most convenient way to do so and that means just looking for PoCs with big platforms online.
And while those folks are great in the specific areas I mentioned, it doesn't mean they're great in the skills needed for the game jobs the company is hiring in. In my mind, this is a form of tokenization--just quickly pick up the nearest and most visible PoC to fill the gap.
Because those PoCs aren't necessarily the right fit for the job, and because a lot of companies have weak/nonexistent onboarding programs the failure rate is likely to be much higher. This leads to a new problem: reinforced subconscious biases that PoCs aren't good enough.
White people need to realize they are holding these biases & consciously address them by continuing to intentionally focus on hiring PoCs, be willing to acknowledge failures will happen & do their best to support PoCs through failure & be willing to invest in onboarding programs.
There is a lot of work to be done, but the first step is: build up robust and large networks of PoCs so that you're hiring pool is diverse. And invest in onboarding processes to ensure greater success for your PoC hires.
Go reread my original thread. The stats wills shock you.
Go reread my original thread. The stats wills shock you.
