Daniel Klein
Ein deutscher Top-Entwickler steht derzeit im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit. Daniel Klein, ehemaliger Chef-Game Designer für Apex Legendes, hat im Jahr 2007 mehrere unangebrachte Posts verfasst. Ende Juli äußerte sich der 44-Jährige zu den Posts und entschuldigte sich für sie:
„Recently, I was confronted with some awful statements I made on a blog I wrote back in 2007. I take full ownership for the things I said, and I’m embarrassed, sad, and angry at my younger self for saying this stuff. I hope it is obvious that I don’t believe these things anymore, I apologize unreservedly for what I said. The work to become a better human being continues until the day you die and I am committed to that work.“
Rassistischer Witz
Damit alles wissen worum es geht, zitieren wir hier einen der Witze, die Klein gemacht hat. Auf einem der gefundenen Screenshots hatte er sich sexistisch gegenüber Frauen geäußert und erklärt, dass ihre Dummheit in ihren Chromosomen liege. In einem anderen Blogpost hat er den folgenden Witz über „afrikanische“ Familien gemacht:
„M notes that D’s beard has grown to a Santa-Like size.
M: Do you have birds living in there?
D: Yes. And a family of Africans. Sometimes I feed them breadcrumbs. The birds, of course, not the Africans. If you feed them, they’ll come back and shit all over the place.“
Rausschmiss bei Respawn
Wie ihr oben lesen konntet, hat Daniel sich vor zwei Wochen für die Aussagen entschuldigt. Doch seinem Arbeitgeber Respawn Entertainment hat das offensichtlich nicht ausgereicht. Sie haben die 14 Jahre alten Witze zum Anlass genommen, Daniel Klein rauszuschmeißen.
Der Game Designer erklärte Mitte der Woche, seit letztem Freitag nicht mehr für Respawn zu arbeiten. Er versichert, die Witze damals nicht aus rassistischen Gründen gemacht zu haben, sondern um Reaktionen zu bekommen. Menschlich habe er sich seitdem weiterentwickelt und ist nicht mehr die Person, die solche Aussagen tätigt.
Statement von Daniel Klein
„As of last Friday, I am no longer working at Respawn. I want to be very open here and say that I’m heartbroken and depressed. It’s been a very dark few days. You may or may not have seen the awful, bigoted things I said in 2007. I wholeheartedly agree that THAT guy should have been fired. I have poured so much energy into becoming a better person since then. And right now I’m just very depressed because it feels I’ll never be able to make up for who I was. I said racist and sexist things, not because I deeply believed any of them, but because I knew I could get a reaction out of people. That does not excuse anything I said.
The impact of my words was the same regardless of what I believed. I’m mentioning this because with the help of a lot of people who loved me in spite of the shithead I was sometimes I was able to make progress on the journey to becoming a better person. (…) Again, to be clear, I’m not saying EA or Respawn did anything untoward. They were absolutely within their rights to terminate me, much as I may disagree with that decision. (…) Lastly, I’m just truly sorry to the Apex team. This is a headache they did not need. I know what their future plans are and I absolutely believe Apex has a bright future. There’s so much cool shit coming, I just wished I could have worked on it.“
Hier seht ihr die Tweets
You may or may not have seen the awful, bigoted things I said in 2007. I wholeheartedly agree that THAT guy should have been fired.
— Daniel Zenon Klein (@danielzklein) August 10, 2021