Elon Musk questioned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on an unverified claim that the company’s gaming division excludes white candidates from its hiring process.
“This is illegal,” wrote Elon Musk tagging Satya Nadella in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He reposted the claim by Malaysian political commentator and social media influencer Ian Miles Cheong.
Cheong’s post said, “Microsoft’s gaming division is excluding whites from being hired to work on their video games.”
It went on to allege that all of their new hires are “unqualified queer and black people” because the company’s executives have an “explicit mandate” against “crusty old white dudes.”
Cheong’s post in itself was a response to a yet another post which showed Josh Sawyer, director of the Fallout video game series “retweeting” a post by Matthew Hansen, Art Director at Obsidian Entertainment.
It was a “retweet” because it was originally posted on June 9, 2020, as seen with the Wayback Machine. Hansen’s account no longer exists on X.
“Reminder to Black artists out there who are looking for portfolio reviews or job advice: my DMs are open, and you will always have my priority,” Hansen wrote in that tweet. “We got too many crusty white dudes in this field, please let me help you replace me one day – I want to go back to living in the woods.”
Meanwhile, Musk himself had been vocal on the alleged matter since a while back.
Musk had written a post on X in March this year saying it should not be acceptable for any company in the gaming industry to be “racist & 𝓈ℯ𝓍ist” against “white guys.”
This was in response to another series of posts which go back to one made by Kelly Lombardi, the global head of Microsoft’s Xbox marketing team.
She had written, “Raise your hand if you’re not a white man and you buy video games. (No hate to white dudes. It’s just another day in the gaming industry that minorities have to fight to prove they exist).”
The post has since been deleted. She later clarified that her “only “agenda” is trying to make room for everyone in an industry I love.”