Sylveria said:
I'd be more offended by the people saying "This woman is an african-american stereotype" than by the actual character itself. You must be pretty darn racist to see something that over the top and say "Yup, that's what black people sound like."
My thoughts.
Basically people saw that character and immediately had racist thoughts about it.
I'm interested in someone making a list of all the kinds of people you can't put in games, movies, music, or stories anymore.
Cause it seems like the list is growing.
"This kind of black person no longer is real and is racist, that kind of Chinese person is racist, that kind of white person is racist, oh and that Indian guy over there definitely is."
Generally the ones offended are the ones living their days judging people by the unimportant (ie. uncontrollable) factors.
floobie said:
Ugh. People are way too easily offended these days. By this logic, as someone of German descent, I should be offended by every ridiculous portrayal of a German in every WWII video game ever. That certainly doesn't represent your typical German, even back in the 30s and 40s. Similarly, as a Canadian, basically every American depiction of a Canadian ever should be hugely offensive to me. I've never meet a Canadian that even remotely conforms to any of those stereotypes. I don't even know where they're coming from.
And yet, neither bother me.
As far as I'm concerned, as long as there's no malicious intent, it's all up for grabs.
I'm reminded of all the pre-war videos of young German soldiers in camp. Looked like a bunch of kids who would rather be out singing, drinking, and playing games.
Shame what would become of their future.
(Also yes, yes, I know, anything that portrays German soldiers as normal humans is propaganda, they were REALLY summoning demons to aid them in the war against the holy alliance).
AdumbroDeus said:
The fact that this portrayal isn't racist doesn't change the fact that racism in america is still alive and well today. All you need to do is look at media, how often do you see an asian-american lead? Now add to that, how often do you see an asian-american lead that isn't playing a martial artist or a comedic character of some variety?
And if you think that RE5's portrayal of tribals was anything but a racist caricature, you have about as much knowledge of African tribesmen as Capcom seems to.
There are a lot of white people acting, a good portion of those white people play stupid characters, comic relief, or your generic imbecile/jerk.
For every one of these games you can just as easily do it with white folks.
Because movie directors tend to suck. There are a bunch of films out there, a phenomenal amount. Most of them portray people generically, regardless of race.
I'd be up for Lucy Liu replacing Sandra Bullock in all her films. Lets do this.
It won't change anything about the films, nor does it matter, but it'll make some sensitive people happy and I find Lucy Liu to be delightful.
Which reminds me, was she the only racist portrayal in Charlie's Angels? Cause I mean, she was doing martial arts.
