This morning I, and I'm sure practically everybody else on this website, were insulted and appalled by
the post made by a Kim Platt over at Blacklooks.org. For those who have not yet read it, Ms. Platt makes the accusation that RE5 is nothing more than a racist, angry pro-white game, in which a "white man" must kill any and all "Black People" in the game. She goes on in her post to say that:

...the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults [is problematic].

Really? Ms. Platt, have you ever seen or played a videogame before in your entire life? Your argument is beyond flawed, and I'd like to take the time to rip your 2 paragraph blog to shreds, if you don't mind. You do? I don't care, here we go:

Yet again, uninformed people automatically assume that video games are designed, and marketed, with young children in mind. It doesn't ever matter what the context of the game is, the rating of the game, hell, even the NAME of the game. She automatically assumed, when she heard "game," that meant that Tommy Pickles and Chuckie Finster are gonna be camped out in front of the television playing it.

Ms. Platt, does the name Resident Evil strike you in the least bit as something geared towards anyone under the age of 16? What if the game was called "Fucking Kills Those Undead Guys". Would you still give it to your little son and/or daughter to have a ball with?

Blatant disregard to knowledge and ratings system aside, let's actually scrutinize the video Ms. Platt, shall we?



Before we start; let's get some background on the game first, shall we?

According to Wikipedia, which is a wonderful place to get information about just about anything, and I highly recommend you check before you start to post idiocy without following up the background first, states:

The original game opens on the evening of July 24, 1998 in the fictional Raccoon City where a number of grisly murders have taken place on the outskirts of town. Victims were attacked in their homes by a group of assailants, who left evidence of cannibalism. Local law enforcement sends in the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team. After contact is lost, the Alpha Team is sent out to find Bravo Team and to continue the investigation. Alpha Team locates the downed Bravo Team helicopter, but there is no sign of survivors; only a severed hand is found. While searching the area for further clues, Alpha Team is attacked by ferocious dogs, which kill one of the team's members, Joseph Frost. Alpha's helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers, suddenly lifts off and abandons the team. Pursued by the violent dogs who killed their colleague, Alpha Team is forced to seek refuge within a nearby mansion, believed to be abandoned.

With the dogs roaming the outside of the building, the four remaining Alpha Team members (Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker) are besieged within. A gun shot rings out, to which the player's selected character moves to investigate. At this point, the player takes control of the character and begins to explore the mansion. One of the first discoveries to be made is a member of Bravo Team, Kenneth Sullivan, being eaten by a zombie...

A zombie, Ms. Platt. A ghoul. A being of the undead. A creature who is no longer human. Keep that in mind.

In the trailer you posted on your blog, the entire first half the video shows Chris Redfield, hero from previous games (again, Wikipedia is a wonderful source of knowledge), walking calmly through the village, not just running up and gunning everybody down. Nobody attacks him, and he doesn't attack either. About half way through the trailer, Chris is attacked by one of the infected (You see, in Resident Evil 4, there were no zombies, but a parasitic organism that controlled the minds of those infected, making them like the undead. Unfeeling, uncaring. They do only as that parasite instructs them to do, which is usually kill.), and fends off the attack. As soon as he gets away from that attacker, however, we see that he is then attacked by many many many more infected, in fact, it's practically the entire village.

Ever heard of self defense Ms. Platt? I think it's kinda hokey to bring up self defense for a video game, but if I were being attacked by a group of crazy people infected by some mind-altering parasite, I would fight back with whatever I could. Guns, pitchforks, fire, LAZAHS. I wouldn't just stand there and let them kill me because I'm white and they're black.

In that video, we see machetes and daggers thrown at Chris, which he reflects away by shooting them out of the sky. Granted, a little far fetched, but it is a video game after all, and that's besides the point of this diatribe anyway. Do you notice what I'm pointing out here, however, Ms. Platt?

Every single action shot from this video shows the villagers attacking FIRST. It's not Chris Redfield running in armed to the teeth and firing on some family down by the water washing clothes. These are infected, practically undead people, who are acting not on their own accord, but by the control of somebody else.

Even if there were never any other RE game before this, it'd still be safe to say that this game is a work of fiction, based on the belief of zombies, who, according to Max Brooks; author of the Zombie Survival Guide:

*Feelings of any kind are not known to the walking dead...Joy, sadness, confidence, anxiety, love, hatred, fear-all of these feelings and thousands more that make up the human "heart" are as useless to the living dead as the organ of the same name.

*Zombies could not possibly retain memories of their former lives in either the conscious or subconscious mind, because neither exist! A ghoul will not be distracted by the family pet, living relatives, familiar surroundings, etc.

Granted, the book states that zombies are reanimated due to a virus known as Solanum, not a parasitic lifeform, and, granted, the book is a work of fiction, but then again, and this is key so is a video game. It's not real. It's imaginative, it's fiction, it's bunk, it's jabberwocky, it's balderdash.

But, Max Brooks does make the point in his book that zombies are not controlled by their own conscious, but rather, by something completely out of their control. In the book, it's the Solanum virus. In Resident Evil, it's the Las Plagas parasite. Whatever those people in the video used to be, they are no longer that now. They're zombies, granted they're not rotting flesh, but they will never be who they used to be, and their only instinct is to kill.

When you are faced with something that shows no remorse, has no feelings, and has only one drive in it's infected head (kill, kill, KILL!), then you are no longer faced with a human being, you are faced with a ghoul, and as such, things like race, family, ethnicity, social background, etc have no credence.


We all make mistakes, Ms. Platt. To err is human, and everyone screws up once and a while. I think we can forgive you for not completely researching this for your post, and the best thing to do would be to retract it, or at the very least, just say you were acting on the human emotion of respect for yourself and your race, without first doing the research to back up your claims.

After all, having those kinds of emotions is what seperates humans from...well, zombies!