Well, we knew this was going to happen and yet I'm still moved to a sad shaking of my head at the myopic nature of humanity. Predictably, a black interest Site in the form of Black Looks has jumped on Resident Evil 5 and its foreign setting, getting its digs in early before other self-segregation organizations take a piece of the attention cake. See, because Resident Evil 5 DARES to have black people in it, it is obviously racist, according to one reactionary writer:
The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity…
This is problematic on so many levels, including 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. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.
[Hit the jump for more on this. Thanks to TheGoldenDonut.]
This is just ... ridiculous. Ridiculous proof that racism will never go away because certain people, both black and white, refuse to be objective and are unable to see a game set in Africa/India/Brazil without instantly, guiltily or selfishly assuming its all about race and "shooting them thar darkies." Racism isn't a one-way street, and it's attitudes such as the one above that are more "problematic on so many levels," than a game that has the guts to set itself in a location outside of white America.
Do I even need to tear this person's pathetic post apart? Not really. It doesn't take a genius to see that the game isn't about "destroying black people," it's about destroying zombies/ganado who for once happen to be black. It does, however, take a really self-centered, perhaps even racist individual, to see it as "the white man killing MY people," and this clearly what the writer sees in Capcom's game. I can pretty much be secure in my assumption that she has never had a problem with the fact that all the enemies save one in Resident Evil 4 were white. Scarcely a black face among them.
The blog about Resident Evil 5 looks like it was written by a straight up racist. She seperates white and black people, distinguishing between them. She ignores the previous games where enemies were mostly white because it doesn't fit in with her blinkered world view. She accuses what she believes to be non-black games developers of ulterior motives and she writes for a Site that's all about black interests. Were the roles reversed, she'd be called a bigot and I wish to call her one now. Oh, and I noticed something else that might be worth pointing out -- please read her little blog post again. Notice anything in particular? It's subtle, but it's there.
That's right. She capitalizes the word "Black."
Not "white."
Bloody racist.
Contest:
10:36 AM on 08.01.2007
| 
Tsk tsk
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/07/zombies_in_afri.php
It takes less of a "Oh my God, racism!" approach and more of a "Okay, let's think about this for a sec" approach. Cultural anxieties and whatnot. Check it out.
"R_N,
Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth."
in one of the comments.
*cough* racist *cough*
"Just thought you might want to knowm this game is made by the Japanese, not Americans."
I'm surprised she didn't respond with something like, "Well, they're KIND of white, just with funny eyes."
I at least expected this later, when actual questions could be raised about the main character's mission (which would still have been ridiculous), but this is awful.
Haha, I can't even type that and keep a straight face! Honestly when I played RE4 I felt the complete opposite because I thought it was awesome that it took place in Spain. :)
So this SOLO white guy gets attacked by GROUPS of black infected zombies....... and the SOLO white guy is racist for defending himself??
gotta love the ignorance of some random blog people.... i guess they will be happy with the extra site hits.
The only thing that's racist about this game so far is how everyone and their mother see's black people and a run down village, and automatically think its Africa.
The author of the post needs to seek professional help for her paranoia.
This is total bullshit, ignorant people should go play in traffic, and I hate stupid people. That is all.
I hate people like that. Embrace realism for once.
http://www.adl.org/videogames/default.asp
Pfffffffft!
ha ha ha ha!
I hate political correctness. =^[
Ha. Win.
Come on.
Unless the dialogue in the game starts sounding like this:
"OH NOEZ DAT KRAKKA IS GONNA DUN KILL US NOW!!"
"You Darkies dont stand a chance, you were too worried about your precious cornbread and "colly greens" to see our true motives!"
"YOU! IT WAS YOU DAT KILLED JOHNNY COCHRAN, NOT A BRAIN TUMOR! IT WAS DA WHITE MAN!"
"yes, and now you blackies dont stand a CHANCE in court!"
"New weapon confirmed for RE5: “Fried Chicken”
Details on Capcom’s upcoming game Resident Evil 5 are sparse, but a new weapon has been confirmed. Fried Chicken comes in either cases of 3 or buckets of 10 which are scattered throughout the game, or sometimes dropped by defeated enemies. A piece of Fried Chicken can be thrown like a grenade or dropped. Any enemies in the vicinity (who can see or smell it) will immediately be attracted to it, and converge upon its location, dropping whatever they are doing at the moment.
If there are multiple enemies in the area, they will viciously attack each other."
I'm sure this greedy, extortionist, racist, anti-semitic douche bag will be speaking out against it next.
Why do people have to pull the race card every time black people are depicted in anything that isn't in "black interest"? A zombie is a zombie no matter what color IT is.
God fucking dammit now I'm pissed.
As a black person and gamer, the RE series is my fave. I'm not offended by RE at all. All Capcom need to do is include a multicutural zombies (this would be difficult to do if its based in part of africa) and a black playable character (it possible there might be one, considering the location). No one ever said all africans were black, because they aren't.
Zombie like Contagion don't choose who it infects. If it's living, it game for contamination. Frankly, we've seen pictures of the zombies, but I can't wait to see what Capcom do with the zombie animals.
<simpsons>
Zombie eat brains...but zombie cannot swallow this injustice!
</simpsons>
Racism implies superiority over a particular group of people. Being wrong and mentioning race doesn't automatically mean racism. Just like saying something incorrect about a console doesn't automatically make you a fan boy. You might be, but it doesn't always. Point is, blanket statements of any kind are bad.
And as some people have pointed out, RE5 is clearly not the game you should be going after if you're looking for racism. There's a few out there, but RE5 is not one of them.
As much as I hate defending Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, the guy certainly isn't a racist. He actually was a strong proponent of civil rights and did a lot for the movement before he was disbarred for being a batshit insane homophobe.
Resident Evil 6 could be full of jewish zombies. A headshot wont kill them, youve got to blow the yarmulke straight off their head, the source of their evil jew zombie powers.
Seriously, if we're gonna be racist, it should be old time racism. None of this vague shit.