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Mixer is a Seattle-based video game streaming platform. In 2016, Microsoft bought the organization for an undisclosed amount in response to the 2014 purchase of the streaming service Twitch by Amazon.
However, over the past few days quite a few controversies related to the matter have arisen. First, Microsoft announced that it was closing down the platform for good. Mixer was called Beam before May 2020, when Microsoft announced that it had decided to change the name because the name Beam had certain legal complications and could not be used worldwide by the giants.
This had led to various online petitions being filed to get Microsoft to consider changing the name back to Beam, with people claiming that the new name sounds like it belongs to a blender company, rather than anything related to game-streaming.
Now, a former Mixer employee named Milan Lee has accused the organization of being racist on multiple counts. The employee recounts four experiences that led eventually led to him quitting Mixer. In this article, we will look at the controversial account in detail.
First, Milan Lee alleges that he was one of the very few black people working at Mixer, and was even pulled aside during a conference and told that the only reason he was hired was because he was “street-smart”. While the first thing that popped into his head was to stand up for himself, he decided to let it go, but this was only the beginning of it all.
Secondly, Milan Lee alleges that a manager of his, during a meeting said the following, word for word:
“I’m in between a rock and a hard place. What I mean is all the partners are my slaves, I own their content. I control their success on our platform. For me I am the slave master, I own partners”
Milan was obviously angered, which was noticed by the manager who then invited him to a one-on-one session. There, Milan tried to make her understand why her statement is so hugely problematic, but she responded by saying that Milan needs to work on himself, after attempting to prove to him that the analogy was alright by Googling it. Needless to say, Google did not agree with her.
Milan narrated his entire experience to the skip level manager, along with incidents related to his ideas being passed off but when the same kind were suggested by white employees, they were taken seriously.
A few weeks later he went to the HR and was told that his complaint was never communicated by the skip manager, which eventually led to his resignation.
Months roll by. Milan no longer works at Mixer. One day, he receives a call from the HR at Mixer and is told that his manager cannot be racist, and when pressed for a reason they tell him that it is because she hired a black person. Needless to say, this leaves him lost for words, and the blog ends by saying that he has not been able to even consider working for Microsoft/Mixer because of the entire experience.
All we can say is, if true, it is only a highly toxic culture that can let such incidents occur. If the people involved are getting away without strict punishment and are even defended, a quick change is required, and it is also telling that Mixer has failed and is now being closed down.
