Fans threaten to quit using streaming platform 'Mixer' if the 'racist management' isn't removed
On Sunday, June 21, a former employee of 'Mixer' came forward with the details of the racist management that runs the popular streaming platform of Microsoft. Milan Lee, who worked with Microsoft for two years between 2017 to 2018, recounted the harrowing time he had while working with the tech giant. In a TwitLonger post, he revealed that he was the only black employee working on the 'Mixer' project.
He penned down a few instances which he felt were racist towards him. Reportedly a manager pulled him aside during a conference and told him that the only reason he was hired was that he was was "street smart". Lee went on to explain how that conversation immediately made him wonder if he was hired just due to affirmative action, but eventually brushed it off. He wrote, "I was one of the only black people working at Mixer during my tenure. While at a conference I was pulled aside and told that the only reason I was hired is because I am “street smart". The first thing that popped into my head at the time was affirmative action. I believed I was only hired to meet a diversity goal because I was black. Anyways I decided to brush it off and let it go."
Unfortunately for Lee, things only got worse over time. He then recounted another incident when his manager used an inappropriate analogy to explain a situation. The manager used the "slave and slave owner" analogy to make her point. "My manager decided to give us an analogy, that analogy was '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," wrote the former employee. Aftre hearing the analogy, Lee was obviously displeased with his manager's choice of words and had a one on one meeting to express his concerns with the language used. Instead of acknowledging her mistake, the manager reportedly asked Lee to work on his emotions, if he wanted to go far in the industry.
After that incident, Lee decided to quit the company. But before that, he reported the incident to a skip-level manager. Apparently, the skip level manager never reported the incident to HR. So, when Lee himself reported it to HR, they were shocked. Unfortunately, nothing came out of it. Lee, eventually left the company a few weeks later. Later, when Lee took up the issue with the legal team, the management decided to carry out an investigation against the manager. Last year, Lee reportedly got a call from the legal team saying that they found the manager to be "not guilty" because she "hired a black person."
This infuriated Lee to no end, and decided to put it up on social media. Internet immediately came forward to his support and people began threatening to quit using Mixer's streaming service, if they didn't fire the racist manager. A user tweeted, "Reasons I WON'T leave a platform: -People don't think variety can grow there Reasons I WILL leave a platform: -It protects and keeps sexual assailants and harassers partnered -Allows racist management -Silences victims so they won't have bad PR You have 1 week Mixer. 1 week."
Another user wrote, "I give Mixer one week. ONE WEEK! To get the piece of sh*ts partnerships taken away (Cudi, Supa, Hollywood, etc.) and the ass**** who thinks its okay to make a disgusting racist comment inside Mixer. If this is not addressed and dealt with, streams will be on twitch. Thank you."
"I stand with my community No more @WatchMixer streams until this is taken care of! This is our home and it has become a not so inclusive place. Mixer is better then what has come out today. I demand action to be taken," expressed an angry user. Mixer still hasn't responded to Lee's allegations.