Resident Evil 5 Coverage Reignites Racism Debate

[Alex_P]

People just need to shut up and remember the first amendment.

No, people need to stop equating criticism with censorship.

-- Alex

 

[Alex_P]

On the continent of Africa in a country that we still do not know the location where a majority of the population is african. It IS racist to kill african zombies.

RTFA, man:

Writing that "there's imagery in here that goes beyond the general air of foreign menace that caused a ruckus in the first trailers," Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead goes on to describe a scene where protagonist Chris Redfield comes cross a gang of men beating something in a sack. These men are not the "infected Majini," they are "ordinary Africans, who stop and stare at you menacingly as you approach...where Africans are concerned, the game seems to be suggesting, bloodthirsty savgery just comes with the territory."

Whitehead goes on to describe a moment later in the game where a white blonde woman is violently dragged off by black men, a scene he says is completely irrelevant to the plot, that plays "so blatantly into old cliches of the dangerous 'dark continent'...you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s." Later on, Whitehead says, there are even more "outrageous and outdated images." He also remarks that the image of Sheva, Redfield's partner in the game and a light-skinned, English-speaking African, fits into accepted Hollywood standard for black heroines, and "compounds the problem rather than easing it."

Whitehead is arguing that the game is racist because it regurgitates long-standing racist tropes in its depiction of not zombies, but regular people.

-- Alex

 

[WendelI]

Look at it this way,
The game might be the dream game for a Raciest Texan (Its a joke) we all don't get pleasure of killing zombies just because their color of skin is different of they speak Spanish, it is because our brains are in danger!
The game is suppose to be giving you the discomfort, It was discomforting for my white friends to play RE4 because they didn't know Spanish. But I am Dominican so every time they spoke It was like i was back home, Just that everyone is white and trying to eat your brains. But I digress, The whole idea of RE4 was discomfort because español no es algo que tu entiendes! Now the idea here is because of their different culture (not skin color) that the game becomes discomforting Truly delivering some Action Horror!

 

[Luckie]

I haven't actually played the demo myself yet so I can't comment for definate, but from the sounds of it, it seems that the game is not racist. I just watched a video today for my psychology class in which a substantial part of it was about the rwandan genocide. I'm pretty sure that was pretty violent and that it was black people killing other black people in that....

And also, if it was white people in the game then no one would give a flying f*ck. If you look at Africa today, I'm pretty sure that it's still filled with god knows how many civil wars and a ridiculous amount of imcomprehensiable inhumane violence. So from what I've heard, RE5 actually portrays a pretty accurate picture of Africa - and most definately not a racist one.

 

[Neurowaste]

People really need to grow up, only when it's African people do people start calling out the race card what about RE4? You were killing Spanish people then, why was there no controversy then. There is only a problem if you make one, and if people can't mature enough to see the world as a bunch of racial classicism, then we'll always have this argument looming behind us, it's just a game, they are zombies, quit bitching.

 

[Break]

So let us recap.

You think you could... Y'know, read? Instead of seeing "Resident Evil 5" and "racism" and immediately writing it off as knee-jerk nonsense. It's not just "black people being killed" that's troubling people.

Writing that "there's imagery in here that goes beyond the general air of foreign menace that caused a ruckus in the first trailers," Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead goes on to describe a scene where protagonist Chris Redfield comes cross a gang of men beating something in a sack. These men are not the "infected Majini," they are "ordinary Africans, who stop and stare at you menacingly as you approach...where Africans are concerned, the game seems to be suggesting, bloodthirsty savgery just comes with the territory."

 

[ROOOOY]

I think people are missing the whole point of the horror genre altogether.

The whole point of horror is to put somebody in a difficult situation doing undesirable things. Whilst killing black people in Africa is not racist in any concievable way, as the majority of the population are black there, there is however something vaguely unsettling about plowing through groups of random black people who aren't intentionally doing something wrong.

However yes, the whole controversy is the people who aren't infected doing strange things (like beating people with sticks, and acting aggressively towards you.) This isn't fantasy land. These are normal human things to do. In a panic situation, people do not act rationally 100% of the time, especially when it's likely that most of your family and friends are being mutilated in some way by these 'zombies'.

Acting aggressively towards you? No shit. In a place where there's mass violence, you're wandering around with a whole gun store on your personel, the locals JUST MIGHT feel quite threatened.

All the developers are trying to do is show these people as human, to add a sense of realism, which contributes towards the horror.

This game is not racist in any way, any person with a ration of common sense could see this.

 

[ace_of_something]

Isn't it supposed to be in a war torn part of Africa? African people committing atrocities against their own people? That's such bull it's not at all like it could be based on current events sensationalized a bit (ya know.... zombies) like most hollywood movies and things like that.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20038999/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7852086.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

 

[carlosvader77]

A problem that's as old as society itself. I'm Mexican, so you know all the kinds of racist stereotypes we get. But it really doesn't bother me too much, sometimes it's funny because it's not true or sometimes it sparks self analysis (not a bad thing). I don't get disturbed by it because racist stereotypes just capture one fraction of the whole population. In the game, Resident Evil 5, it's said that there's a moment in the game of violence being carried by non-infected Africans (e.g. normal people). Who can say there's no violence in Africa, or the US, or Mexico, or anywhere in the world for that matter. If a game showed a scene in Mexico City where a guy is being robbed and then executed, that could happen and it does happen. But it also could happen in New York, Paris, and any city in the world. I think we shouldn't take a game that is not trying to be political (it's a survival shooter, for crying out loud!) too seriously. Will it make people who play it more racist? Will it make people who play it less racist if CAPCOM takes those parts out? I think the answer to both is no. Videogames, like any human expression is flawed and will hurt someone's feelings, it's practically unavoidable. For parents out there who are concerned, just take your time to explain the situation to your children, and don?t let them play the game (it has a Mature rating anyway).

 

[wuhorseman816]

I am 29year black man. I saw the game trailer and knew that it was going to spark some controversy. I personally saw no problem with demo or trailer, I could understand all the hoopla if this was the first RE and they decided to put in Africa and some white guy was running around killing black people with some kinda virus. That I could have understood; but it isn't the first resident evil - they have done several and have gone global with type of zombies they kill. People need to not be so quick to pull out the race card when ever something goes down that offends them. If the game would have been set in Africa and had nothing but white people living there, there would have been an uproar. I wonder if the people who are writing these articles about the racism in RE5 are really offended by what is shown or depicted OR if they are just concerned what other people might think or feel. Until the ambassador or representative of Africa comes out and says that he is offended, the poeple who are saying they are offended need to shut the FU and stop trying to spark beef.

 

[Tony Harrison]

I'm curious about what he's not allowed to reveal, I'll be on the fence until I have a better view. How can so many people already have a definitive opinion on the issue?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Whitehead goes on to describe a moment later in the game where a white blonde woman is violently dragged off by black men, a scene he says is completely irrelevant to the plot, that plays "so blatantly into old cliches of the dangerous 'dark continent'...you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s."

No offence, but if you'd visited Africa, you'd see it was pretty much like this or Farcry 2. Remember that little GENOCIDE thing no one was paying attention to? Yeaaahh... It's not racist just because it involves Africans. Read an international webpaper for a change, believe it or not there's plenty of chaos in the world that doesn't involve Iraq.

 

[Pipotchi]

So let us recap.

You think you could... Y'know, read? Instead of seeing "Resident Evil 5" and "racism" and immediately writing it off as knee-jerk nonsense. It's not just "black people being killed" that's troubling people.

Writing that "there's imagery in here that goes beyond the general air of foreign menace that caused a ruckus in the first trailers," Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead goes on to describe a scene where protagonist Chris Redfield comes cross a gang of men beating something in a sack. These men are not the "infected Majini," they are "ordinary Africans, who stop and stare at you menacingly as you approach...where Africans are concerned, the game seems to be suggesting, bloodthirsty savgery just comes with the territory."

At the risk of being labeled a racist myself, isnt this kind of violence endemic in large areas of current day Africa? Assault of Pro-democracy types in Zimbabwae, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Somalia is going to hell. I am not saying that all Africa is like this or that all Africans partake in these activities but this level of violence does occur so I dont see how showing something similar is racist?

 

[Alex_P]

Whitehead goes on to describe a moment later in the game where a white blonde woman is violently dragged off by black men, a scene he says is completely irrelevant to the plot, that plays "so blatantly into old cliches of the dangerous 'dark continent'...you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s."

No offence, but if you'd visited Africa, you'd see it was pretty much like this or Farcry 2. Remember that little GENOCIDE thing no one was paying attention to? Yeaaahh... It's not racist just because it involves Africans. Read an international webpaper for a change, believe it or not there's plenty of chaos in the world that doesn't involve Iraq.

So... all of Africa is "pretty much" full of the dreaded dark-skinned Others dragging off young blonde white women?

-- Alex

 

[sheic99]

Why is that African Americans think everyone hates them? Per se RE 4 where their were mexicans. NO ONE MADE A BIG DEAL ABOUT THAT DID THEY? This is maybe one reason why some people are still racist to them, because make a big deal about everything and we always need to help them. THAT IS NOT HOW I THINK. I was IMAGINING what racists see. I personally treat blacks as human beings. My good friends are black.

You're an idiot. Resident Evil 4 was set in SPAIN you are killing the Spanish not Mexicans. You are a white guy killing white European people. Now you are a Spanish guy killing a black people. Any time a white guy is shown killing black people, it is racist. For the record, there are Asian in the game as well.