This will be my attempt to convey my views on the recent 'Racism in Resident Evil 5' debacle. I say 'attempt' because the whole thing is quite the quagmire which really comes down to personal views on the state of segregation/racism in America and the rest of the world. So I'm going to try and get to the root of the controversy instead of the actual problem itself, the preview video.

{If you want to skip some boring analytical stuff, "Hit the Jump" and slide on down to the next place you see these brackets.}

First of all, obviously the setting is a very big part of the current scandal. Everyone is reacting to the fact that it takes place in Africa. (While I have heard that it's possibly somewhere else, like an island nation, let's assume for the sake of argument that it is, indeed, Africa.) I suppose I should mention that no one has said anything about the video's portrayal of the setting in the first place. The area is depicted as harsh and alien, with the bright sun and silent footage, save for the music, as well as admittedly creepy glances towards the camera (and therefore, the viewer) aimed at making the entire environment seem hostile. A scene of an angry mob lynching someone, should garner them no sympathy from the viewers, whether the audience believes the victim to be one of the villagers or an outsider, a public hanging is generally disapproved of.

Only after this is established is the main focus of the preview introduced, Chris Redfield. It may be true that he is the only caucasian present and is dressed vaguely like an authority figure, I think it should be apparent to most that he is supposed to appear as a stranger or an outsider. Since we hear his voice and are introduced to him by name, the viewer is supposed to attach to him as our protagonist. Fans of the series of games will already know who he is by name and know his motivations, but someone unfamiliar with the story should still realize that he is an established person, since he is given a name. If he were a new character, there would be no point in naming him in a simple preview, as no one would know who he is. If this realization is made by someone who doesn't know who he is immediately, they should realize also that he must have already been set up as a white male, stopping protests declaring he should be black as well.

Getting back on track, we then see Chris looking perhaps a little scared at suddenly being alone in the midst of the formerly busy village he was just walking through. More evidence that he is out of his element or in danger. This is meant to be a scary bit of CG animation, afterall.

The next thing we see is Chris coming upon what would look to an unfamiliar viewer as (I think) two men torturing or otherwise assaulting a third man. After the first two flee, the third man obviously has been harmed, due to the visual of the blood coming from his eyes, and is obviously not aware of what he's doing as he attacks Chris. For his part, the protagonist does not move to stop the victim, simply holding him off, grappling with him.

Again attempting to analyze the content as though I was not aware of the mechanics of the game, we then see Chris backing away from groups of advancing threatening people bearing bladed weapons. The next several scenes depict our 'hero' being surrounded and attacked, forced to the ground and targeted by people throwing what look to be fairly large knives seen earlier being used to chop meat. During these scenes, Chris appears to be taking a fairly pacifistic stance, backing away while warding off attacks with a small fire-arm as well as throwing off people who grab him and pushing them away. Admittedly, there are a few pistol shots used, one of which was only to deflect the course of an inbound knife, and one punch thrown by him, but overall, the idea that he is defending himself while trying to escape seems completely plausible and acceptable.

If this trailer tells a story, we then see escalating violence on both sides of the conflict as the game progresses as Chris uses a shotgun and then a rifle very briefly, interspersed with him being completely surrounded, trapped and cornered and sliced at with blades several times, as well as more shots of him trying to escape up some stairs or into different places.

The whole thing ends with Chris running and leaping off of an undefined wall/building/embankment, possibly injuring himself rather than facing the hordes of hostile pursuers.

{Jump down to here!}

First of all, I want to respond to what I saw of the article Jim Sterling was responding to in his post (which inspired me to write my own). They mention a white man "killing Black people", even though there is surprisingly little violence on Chris' part. The only instance of a death in the video being the lynching at the beginning, committed by the villagers and perhaps Chris' single shotgun blast and burst of fire from an assault rifle (which didn't appear to hit anything, as I recall). His shots with the pistol are all rather ineffective looking. As for 'killing', it seems very much that that is what the large number of villagers is trying to do to the protagonist.

Next, the article says, "The Black people are supposed to be zombies". This shows that the author of the article in question realizes that the beings in the video have become something other than human beings, as it is widely known that zombies are more than walking corpses. Honestly, stopping a zombie is only desecrating a corpse. Having acknowledged that the people present are 'supposed to be zombies' might explain away and justify their actions in that they are no longer in control of themselves. Furthermore the fact that Chris is reluctant to attack said monsters should only further garner sympathy for him.

They go on to mention "depiction of Black people as inhuman savages". As I said, they have already established that the black people present are zombies. Since they already pointed this out, it opens the door to the argument that zombies are altogether different from a 'savage'. Saying someone is a 'savage' implies that they are less intelligent and barbaric.. but depicting someone as a zombie gives no bearing on their life or actions before succumbing to the great equalizer of death, then rising as a mythological being that classically has only one motivation, which is hunger. Denoting that they ARE zombies only proves that they're just hungry, and are depicted attempting to eat the protagonist.

(I know they're actually not zombies, but Ganados. But that distinction is only important to people who are already fans of the games)

Lastly, the article attempts to accuse Capcom with the statement that "this video game is marketed to children and young adults". I don't think I need to say anything to convince you that this game is not trying to attract children. The scary overtones and the violence devoid of bright colours or cartoony antics of any kind should be proof enough. And, more than likely the game will receive an 'M' rating upon release, hopefully limiting the 'young adult' range that should be able to purchase it to those people already on the verge of adulthood.

Once more looking at it in a purely non-Resident Evil way.. it's entirely possible to imagine that Redfield is only attempting to survive the horrible situation in which he's placed (wait.. survive.. horrible.. that sounds familiar). Or perhaps, if one must infer an ulterior motive, it might be that he's attempting to stop the men that first attacked the third man in the initial encounter. Or maybe he's there to stop the man with the megaphone and his criminal followers. At this point, it's useless speculation.

What isn't useless OR speculative is this: Since the setting is one that, by all logic, would only have black people living there, it makes no sense that any character would be anything but african. The only reason the main character is not black as well is because he's an established character continuing the story that he is a part of. Since there's a giant 5 in the title, people who don't know the story should assume he's the same main character there's always been. If they checked and found that the previous 4 RE games had black heroes, only to be replaced by a white one when the series is set in Africa, then I would agree that something is fishy.

What would be controversial is if this game was set in an American city and had a white male walking amongst normal, everyday people as they went about their daily lives without attacking him, and he simply sought out and attacked black people as opposed to white people for no reason as they went by. If that was the object of the game in question, then yes, this scandal would probably be justified.

(Also, to a lesser extent, if the game was as it was, in Africa, with the same africans everywhere, but they DIDN'T attack him and he suddenly begins a slaughter, it would only prove that he wanted to kill a lot of people and didn't discriminate within the parameters set before him.)

Holy crap, this is way too long, no one is going to read this, what have I done??!?! Oh well. Hope I didn't bore you to death by now and thanks for reading.

-Amethystine

PS - On a lighter note, it's also widely known that black cultures invented zombies, in a way. So shouldn't they have been more offended at all zombies in popular culture up to this point for NOT being black? Everyone was ripping off a clearly Voodoo originated IP! j/k