Riot Games Is Donating $1 Million To Fighting Systematic Racism

Riot Games is donating $1 million to causes to "accelerate progress" in fighting systematic racism. The studio's first two donations are being given to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The Innocence Project.

Riot Games announced the news with a tweet on Friday, saying it was their responsibility to commit resources to systematic change. The company did not specify the amount of either initial donation.

The Innocence Project is a New York-based nonprofit that works to free people wrongly convicted of crimes and prevent future injustices. The organization primarily uses DNA evidence to bring about new trials for hundreds of wrongly convicted individuals in the United States.

"The murder of yet another unarmed black man has ignited a national outcry for justice, not only for George Floyd, but countless others in the black community who are dying at the hands of a system they are supposed to be able to trust," Riot Games' president Dylan Jadeja wrote in the tweet.

Riot Games, which launched its new team shooter Valorant on June 2, joins a number of other companies like EA, The Pokemon Company, and others in donating to Black Lives Matter and similar causes in response to protests erupting across the United States over the killing of George Floyd.

Riot Games is also "committed to a new objective" of investing $10 million into startup programs aimed at company leads and founders of color who are underrepresented in the game community. It did not add any further specifics. The company also announced that they'd be funding a $50,000 scholarships program for black students who want to major in game development through the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.

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