Riot Games to pay $10 Million for Toxic ‘Bro Culture’

By Jeremiah Thompson

Despite laws that are in place to combat sexism in the corporate culture, cases of sexism still remain. In a recent lawsuit, female employees charged Riot Games for broad gender discrimination in the corporation. Many Riot employees left the company due to that discrimination.

Based in Los Angeles, this video game company plans on paying $10 million dollars to about 1,000 female employees. These employees have worked at Riot Games within the past five years and have been subject to the negative “bro culture” that inundated the company. CBS News pointed out that Riot’s company had violated “California’s equal pay, discrimination, and retaliation statues.”

Furthermore, female employees had to deal with teasing and sexual objectification while working there. According to court documentation, there was “an ongoing e-mail chain of ‘Riot Games Hottest Woman Employees’ ” that rated their female employees. Blatant sexism like this is common in the media industry but is still no less illegal.

Ronnie Blackburn Doesn’t Stand for Sexism

Without women like Ronnie Blackburn, who tweeted about this problem, the problem would have continued. Ronnie tweeted:

“To every former, current, & future female Rioter, I am sorry I didn’t speak up when I experience sexism at Riot. I had the power & the will, which some understandably lack, & I chose silence out of fear for my career. I am sorry & I want you to know that my silence ended today.”
Ronnie Blackburn on Twitter

Ronnie is not the only person standing up for themselves. Jessica Negron and Melanie McCracken are as fighting back as well. As the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, they have also had similar instances of discrimination while working at Riot. Among all the staff who work at Riot, according to the lawsuit, 80 percent of them are men. Due to such a large discrepancy between male and female employees, the culture turned towards that of the majority.

Riot Games seem to have taken their employees’ claims of sexual harassment very seriously. According to their website, Riot “ will continue to strive to be a great company.” Through paying this settlement, they are seemingly working towards improving their company. Ryan Saba, the plaintiff’s lawyer, also seem hopeful that this settlement shows the cultural growth in the company.

Whether or not this settlement will actually improve the culture of the company remains a mystery. But Riot Games, along with others, remain hopeful that this is the first step in many towards improving the company and their future.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.