Valve Responds to Racism Accusations

[Logan Westbrook]

Valve Responds to Racism Accusations

Valve has spoken out following a Houston blogger's accusations of racism in Left4Dead 2.

Race in videogames has recently become a touchy subject following the uproar caused by Resident Evil 5's depiction of Africa and its people and when Willie Jefferson, videogame blogger for the Houston Chronicle, wrote a post about racism in games, he re-ignited the discussion with a fresh wave of controversy.

The main point of his article was his dismay at western-themed FPS Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood's use of the Confederate flag, which he regarded as a symbol of hate, but early on in the post, he cited Left4Dead 2 as a game with racist undertones saying: "One of the games that comes to mind is 'Left 4 Dead 2.' Though the game isn't out yet, it's already causing an uproar. Set in New Orleans, players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."

Predictably, this view on their game has Valve somewhat mystified and writer Chet Faliszek has spoken about the accusations in an interview with Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/valve-responds-to-left-4-dead-2-racism-accusations-141921.phtml].

"Utter insanity," said Faliszek. "There are mixed races of zombies, there are all different races of zombies that you shoot, and since we placed it in New Orleans, that makes it racist? I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times ... but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it's a weird thing to be accused of. We're like, 'how does this work'?

I know where I stand on this, but let's hear what you have to say. Do Call of Juarez and Left 4 Dead 2 strike you as racist?

Source: GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/08/03/left-4-dead-2-writer-calls-racism-charges-quotutter-insanityquot]

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[MasterSqueak]

This isn't helping Texas' image.

Utter insanity indeed.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

meh,I see no racism.unlike RE5,they are just mixing races for a more realistic zombie based experience,they can't help it it's set in new orleans.

 

[Oneirius]

The sad thing here is that if they did not put any african american zombies there, I can almosut assure you that this would also get them accused of racism.
Utter insanity.

 

[megapenguinx]

It seems to me, if people look for problems they will generally find them.

 

[Kajt]

Oh, so shooting a white zombie is okay but shooting a black isn't? Now that's racism.

 

[Erana]

The Confederate flag is not a symbol of racism, dammit!
Sure, there are some idiots, like klansmen, who misuse it, but they also misuse the crusifix, too!
The Confederacy itself wasn't about white supremacy, either! A lot of states wanted to keep slavery, but the essence of the war was about a different governmental mindset: The North wanted the states wanted a federal government with all the power while the Confederacy wanted the states to be independent, almost to the point of being their own individual countries.
Irk! Exaggerating morons!

 

[Random Argument Man]

I don't know what's Jefferson's problem is. Each time there's a black guy (or woman) getting killed "EDIT" in video games "EDIT, it's racism in his eyes. (That was a close one).


To answer your question: No, I don't think those games are racist. Unless I hear "Die you (term to insult black people)" or other examples, I don't think the game "should" be racist.

 

[Danzaivar]

Would it be more racist or less racist if they didn't have black zombies, say rather than become zombies the infection kills them outright? That's the only alternative to the black zombie situation, and since it implies that black people ARE different to white people it comes across as a bit, you know, RACIST.

Confederate flag thing is just stupid, I don't know much about Call of Juarez (Or the old southern america for that matter) but if it's set in a period where you see that flah then it makes sense to use it. Surely? By that kind of logic, Jerusalem in Assassin's Creed should have the Israeli flag everywhere...

 

[HK_01]

Yeah, cause there's totally no African Americans in New Orleans, so the fact that there are black zombies is like totally racist...

"with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."

...
*eyetwitch*
"The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28.05% White, 0.20% Native American, 2.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." - Wikipedia, on New Orleans.

The fucking majority is black.
How does including them make it racist?
If anything, the opposite should be true!

I honestly cannot fathom the stupidity that goes on in the mind of this man.
Jesus Christ. Seriously.

I keep re-reading the article to make sure I didn't make some sort of reading comprehension error.

This pretty much nails it.

 

[Cheesezorz]

Strange. I would have answered with a short and simple "Shut up.".

 

[uppitycracker]

The sad thing here is that if they did not put any african american zombies there, I can almosut assure you that this would also get them accused of racism.
Utter insanity.

Please don't let this one completely insane and utterly fucking stupid writer speak for the rest of us. Well, let it speak for Houston, that place is full of idiots, but people here in Austin tend to have a little bit more intelligence than that....





And on a different note.... WHAT. THE. FUCK. First, it's racist because all the zombies are black... then it's racist because there's a nice mix, but some of them HAPPEN to be black? Does that mean that, if you take a look at a city bus these days, and see a MIX of black and white people sitting in the back, that bus line is utterly racist simply because there's a FEW people that aren't white back there? Where does this complete blindness to the real issue begin? Racism wouldn't be NEARLY the problem that it is today if people would just let it go. The level of racism I see in the world today is mainly only magnified by the morons who can't help but make a dramatic issue out of everything they see, the people who find evil in everything, who can't live without constant drama filling up their lives.

 

[Trivun]

What the hell? That's like saying you can't kill ninjas who look Japanese in a game set in ancient Japan. When you play as a Japanese ninja. Next he'll be saying Samurai Warrior and Dynasty Warrior are racist. Honestly, does this guy have too much time on his hands or something? New Orleans is a place where there happen to be a lot of African Americans. The best part about New Orleans is it's diverse culture. So it would be more of a surprise if there weren't any African American zombies or heroes there. Call of Juarez too, that's hardly racist. The Confederate flag is used, fine. Does the guy even know when it's set? The flag is shown in context. People who complain about racism in games are just nit-picking morons. If there's a case of obvious racism, like a game where you play as the BNP/KKK/any other racist scumbags and the point is killing people of a particular race, then that's racism. Killing black zombies as a black character in a setting where black people live? That isn't racist.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Bloggers are retards, why are they reading the rambling of these idiots?

 

[obisean]

Bitching about a Confederate flag in a game set during the Civil War is like bitching about swastika's in a WW2 game.

The sad thing here is that if they did not put any african american zombies there, I can almosut assure you that this would also get them accused of racism.
Utter insanity.

And then basically this. If all the zombies were white, people would complain whites are preferred. If you throw in black zombies, people would complain that you are a racist killing blacks. RE5, I may give them a tiny bit of credit towards playing the race card, but if and only if they actually played the game and learned why the black Africans are the way they are in that game.

You'll notice I never used the term (insert race here)-American. That is because I feel that everyone who is a citizen is an American. There is no race attached to being American, that's why it is called a melting pot. Now if you wanted to get specific and call me the white/caucasian guy that I am, that is fine, but I most definitely am not a White/Caucasian-American.

 

[RavingPenguin]

Call of Juarez is not racist, its period accurate. You play a Southern soldier who runs away from the south, therefore its only natural to see a confederate flag a few times. Displaying a flag is by no means racist.
L4D2 is also not racist for the reasons mentioned in the articles. No one is immune from the zombie apocolypse, that means people of all nationalities will be effected.
It really sounds like this blogger is speaking from ignorance.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I don't see race when I look at zombies.
I think they're all part of the zombie race.
I do however think the L4D games are racist towards the entire zombie race.
Not as bad as some of the other games but still pretty offensive.