BlackGirlGamers vs. That Park Place Lawsuit

Overview

BlackGirlGamers vs. That Park Place Lawsuit, also known as Black Girl Gamers That Park Place Controversy, refers to the viral debate and continuation of the Sweet Baby Inc controversy that occurred in late March 2024 following an article from the online news site That Park Place accusing BlackGirlGamers of having prejudiced and discriminatory hiring practices. In the days following the article, BlackGirlGamers attempted to use a cease and desist, as well as legal action against That Park Place, which was later denied. The controversy sparked widespread discourse, debates and memes online leading into April 2024.

Background

On March 15th, 2024, That Park Place released an article^[1] on its website in which they reported that BlackGirlGamers, a company and online community centered around Black female gamers, had partaken in discriminatory hiring practices when it came to some of the employees and freelancers that the company hired.

This led to the social media page for BlackGirlGamers to respond with a thread^[2] on X / Twitter on March 26th in which it denied the accusations and threatened defamation lawsuits and cease and desist letters for people who shared the article made by That Park Place (shown below, click to expand).

Developments

In the following days after the thread, That Park Place was officially served a cease and desist to its legal team, calling the article and videos made about it disinformation and harmful. This letter,^[3] which was created on March 27th, 2024, received a response^[4] from the lawyers representing That Park Place in which they claimed that the cease and desist, as well as the other claims of disinformation and harmful intent, were "meritless and ridiculous" and that the matter was legally closed in their view (shown below, left and right).

Also on March 27th, online personality GothixTV, who claimed to have previously worked at BlackGirlGamers before being fired from the company in the past, posted a tweet on X^[6] criticizing the company and accusing them of not caring about diversity. The post (seen below) received over 3.3 million views and 11,000 likes in a week.

Online Reactions

In late March 2024, numerous reactions and discussions appeared online revolving around the Black Girl Gamers lawsuit. For example, Twitch streamer Asmongold discussed it on a stream that was later uploaded to his YouTube channel Asmongold Clips on March 28th, garnering nearly 350,000 views, 11,000 likes and 1,000 comments in five days (seen below).

Numerous threads about the controversy also appeared on Reddit in late March and early April 2024, particularly on subreddits such as /r/KotakuInAction.^[7][8] A thread posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[9] on April 2nd asking about the "beef between 'BlackGirlGamers' and 'That Park Place'" received over 300 upvotes and 150 comments in 24 hours, with the top-voted answer from Redditor _HGCenty stating:

Answer: That Park Place accussed BlackGirlGamers of having discriminatory hiring practices, highlighting tweets they made asking for only black applicants. BGG responded with a C&D alleging defamation and TPP hired a lawyer to respond calling their claims meritless.

Furthermore, this is very closely related to the previous Sweet Baby Inc episode of Gamergate 2.0 (both involved diversity consultancies in the gaming industry) and so right wing voices in the gaming industry like Grummz are chipping in.

After the letter from That Park Place was released, others began to weigh in on the situation as the controversy spread on social media. On April 1st, 2024, GothixTV released a video^[5] on YouTube titled "Black Girl Gamers is a WOKE Cult," which tied the company's gaming consultations to Sweet Baby Inc, which was another controversial video game consultant that drew backlash and debate the month prior (shown below, left).

On March 30th, YouTuber^[6] YoungRippa59 also uploaded a video, titled "My thoughts on 'Black Girl Gamers,'" in which he discussed the growing controversy, receiving over 23,000 views, 2,600 likes and 440 comments in four days (shown below, right).

As the debate surrounding the event spread online, some users also voiced their support for BlackGirlGamers. For example, Twitter / X^[10] user @_Jazzyguns posted a reaction GIF on March 28th, 2024, receiving over 27,000 views and 1,800 likes in six days (shown below).

I stand with @blackgirlgamers 🗣️There’s nothing wrong with creating a safe space and having a sense of community that can open doors to new friendships,business opportunities, and just a sisterhood! Let’s not do this pic.twitter.com/WqcFnrWNlO

— Jazzy🌺🎮 (@_Jazzyguns) March 28, 2024

Search Interest

External References