Resident Evil 5 - racist or not?

[Brats]

I can't imagine why they'd feel they have to. There is still no context to the trailer. The best anyone has managed to come up with in terms of racism is perceived symbolism that may or may not be an issue in the final game. Like I said, unless they're using the n-word or this is clearly an attack on black people (we'll have to wait and see), symbolic perception and interpretations really aren't enough to cause any major problem.

But people love to make assumptions. We all know this. Just look at any news story posted in the off topic forum an you'll see huge numbers of opinions based on assumption without really knowing the full facts. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm surprised Capcom didn't see it coming and nip any possible backlash in the bud.

This is just like the hyaenas being played by minorities in The Lion King. Or the clones being played by "latinos" (according to one article) in Star Wars Ep2.

I haven't heard about the Episode 2 one before, but some of the decisions by the Lion King are pretty idiotic, even by the respective actors themselves. James Earl jones may be black, but he sounds very regal. There's little doubt that it was a decision (quite possibly sub-conciously) that the Lions in the film should all speak clear and pronounced whereas the hyenas all sound like their from Compton. It's not racist, but it is thoughtless.

[Kaladron]

Where I feel that article falters is during this passage -

"But looking again at the trailer, I see a different message: it?s not just that these zombies are black, but that the uninfected black villagers are zombie-like too. See all those spooky shots of the villagers before they get infected? It?s as if race itself were a disease. The white protagonist has to fight back or be infected."

That is simply the writer projecting her own perception on what she sees. It's no different to how Leon and Claire's glassy eyes freaked the hell out of me in the RE2 intro. They looked scary as ****. That didn't make them the bad guys.

"It's as if the race itself were a disease"

That's her view.

Like I said, this stuff is less "fact" and more theory but you can bet that if one person thinks that way then several others will too. Does that make them right? Well, we could be discussing that forever...and probably will be, going by the looks of this thread so far.

[Brats]

It's quite difficult to be factual about something like racism when it's so caught up in acadmeic theory and discussion BUT I thought this presented quite a well reasoned argument.

To be fair, she doesn't say it's racist. She actually writes 'the point isn?t to smack one more label on mainstream video games'. She simply says the trailer is 'strangely disturbing', because some of the imagery does have connotations with difficult events that occur in real life. She's commenting on her reaction, she's not saying she is offended or the game should be banned (although judging from the comments, many people have completely misread her. What a surprise).

This is why the game could be utterly amazing because it could tackle these issues in a thought provoking way. I hope it's not just set in Africa because it's different, but actually sets out to comment on political issues like the Romero films. It'll be a thin line to tread, but if it gets it right...

[Kotatsu Neko]

It's quite difficult to be factual about something like racism when it's so caught up in acadmeic theory and discussion BUT I thought this presented quite a well reasoned argument.

Someone linked to that article earlier in this thread, and I thought it was a laughably bad piece of amateurish tripe. An attempt to get a few page hits, which it presumably did.

I'm frankly sick of this debate now, and I'm sure others must be too. It simply has zero merit. The argument seems to be 'you can't show a white man shooting Africans', which would be fine if the same rule applied to shooting Spanish people, or Americans. Except nobody cared about that. Why? No reason.

People need to put the colonial/slave trade baggage in the cupboard and move on. We're all equal now, and anyone can have their head chainsawed off if they become a zombie.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Where I feel that article falters is during this passage -

"But looking again at the trailer, I see a different message: it?s not just that these zombies are black, but that the uninfected black villagers are zombie-like too. See all those spooky shots of the villagers before they get infected? It?s as if race itself were a disease. The white protagonist has to fight back or be infected."

That is simply the writer projecting her own perception on what she sees. It's no different to how Leon and Claire's glassy eyes freaked the hell out of me in the RE2 intro. They looked scary as ****. That didn't make them the bad guys.

"It's as if the race itself were a disease"


That's her view.

Laughable isn't it. I didn't see that in the trailer at all. I did see a threatening looking environment, but then, this is a HORROR game. Would the writer have preferred Capcom have the village full of happy people singing and laughing and have the player join in for a sings song? That would have been so terrifying, a sure way to make a survival horror game!

[Brats]

Someone linked to that article earlier in this thread, and I thought it was a laughably bad piece of amateurish tripe. An attempt to get a few page hits, which it presumably did.

Like many others, you didn't actually read that she's not saying the game is racist. Quote a part where she actually claims it is.

I'm frankly sick of this debate now, and I'm sure others must be too. It simply has zero merit. The argument seems to be 'you can't show a white man shooting Africans', which would be fine if the same rule applied to shooting Spanish people, or Americans. Except nobody cared about that. Why? No reason.

Completely wrong again. Take the film Zulu - a film that has white soldiers fighting a complete black army set in Africa. It had the potential to be a racist minefield, but because it was expertly written and directed, it avoids any rascist trappings. The Zulu's are not portrayed as savages but as a respectable and organised race. When Michael Caine's character calls the escaping Africans 'cowardly' he is quickly rebuffed.

No-one has a problem with the settin per-se, again it's the symbolism that could come with it. We have yet to see if RE5 will treat its subject matter with the same degree of thought as Zulu.

[Kaladron]

We're all equal now.

You're obviously white if you believe something as preposterous as that. The world is far from equality.

[Dogg Thang]

Brats, even if Zulu didn't depict the Zulus as savages, even if Caine wasn't rebuffed, that wouldn't make it racist. It would make it a take from one point of view. The story could have been told from either side. If the film depicted the Zulus as savages, it wouldn't be saying all black people are savages. Even if a character in the movie said, "all black people are savages" and the people around him agree, that doesn't make the movie racist. It makes the characters in the movie racist.

You can be damn sure if the film was told through the eyes of the Zulus, they wouldn't be saying lovely things about the white people.

Yes, Zulu was very thoughtful (and is a wonderful film), but it didn't have to be. It's not a documentary designed to provide a fair and balanced look at history.

Of course, one huge difference between Zulu and RE5 is that RE5 isn't (yet) depicting actual events. Even just going by the trailer, it's not saying 'this is how African villagers are'. It's saying 'this is how African zombies are'. Slightly fictional. Until the zombie apocalypse comes, I don't think there are lobby groups for the zombie communty, never mind the black zombie community.

If anyone looks at a depiction of one event (in this case fictional) and sees it as a representation of an entire race, yeah, there's racism there but it's in the person making that leap.

[RLench]

I think it's funny how so many people claim it's racist...yet nobody knows where the game is actually set Who are you claiming it's racist against?

If it was set in an African village, and the whole story revolved around clearly racist ideas, then I'd be moaning about it (as I'd hope everyone else would too). But the fact is we know absolutely nothing about this game that justifies claiming it's racist. Where is it set? What is the story? Are the black villagers unable to control themselves (and therefore victims)? Is it even set in a real location?

People are just jumping on the bandwagon here. Play the game, decide for yourself, and just leave it at that. Claiming it's racist, when you know NOTHING about the game or the people behind it, based purely on the fact it features black enemies is absolutely ridiculous

[Kotatsu Neko]

Like many others, you didn't actually read that she's not saying the game is racist. Quote a part where she actually claims it is.

The implication is right through the article, such as where she claims that the uninfected villagers are zombie like (which they aren't by any stretch of the imagination), then she claims that the trailer implies that being black is a disease (which again, is absurd).

The trailer merely portrays the poverty of Africa in an accurate way, and naturally tries to make the atmosphere tense and unpleasant because it's a horror game.

I'm done here, as I said before this isn't an argument worth having, as it's an argument about absolutely nothing.

['Press Start']

I'm frankly sick of this debate now, and I'm sure others must be too. It simply has zero merit. The argument seems to be 'you can't show a white man shooting Africans', which would be fine if the same rule applied to shooting Spanish people, or Americans. Except nobody cared about that. Why? No reason.

Sorry I thought this an ignorant comment and had to say something about it.

Americans are not a race. How can shooting Americans be racist? think about it before you reply.

['Press Start']

Is what we have seen about Resident Evil 5 racist? maybe. It all comes down to perception.

peoples different Perceptions of the same topic can cause more conflict then the subject matter itself so it would not suprise me if this blew up.

Personally I am going to wait to see more of the storyline before make any judgement.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Sorry I thought this an ignorant comment and had to say something about it.

Americans are not a race. How can shooting Americans be racist? think about it before you reply.

If you want to be pedantic then so be it, Americans are a race, - native Americans.

You know what I meant so it was a pointless comment to make.

[John Beaulieu]

Personally I am going to wait to see more of the storyline before make any judgement.

We more or less know the storyline though - the franchise has been building it up and up for quite some time now. Its those people who look at those images with no idea of what resident evil is, no idea of the backstory, or the context - they are the ones who will believe whats said in the tabloid papers, or on news sites about what the images represent.

Without knowing the context of the images, without knowing what the game series is based on, without knowing a single drop of the backstory and what are you left with? An angry mob of black men armed with machettes with a white man dressed in combat gear pointing a gun at them ....

['Press Start']

We more or less know the storyline though - the franchise has been building it up and up for quite some time now. Its those people who look at those images with no idea of what resident evil is, no idea of the backstory, or the context - they are the ones who will believe whats said in the tabloid papers, or on news sites about what the images represent.

Without knowing the context of the images, without knowing what the game series is based on, without knowing a single drop of the backstory and what are you left with? An angry mob of black men armed with machettes with a white man dressed in combat gear pointing a gun at them ....

True, but I feel even if some did know the story the game could still be viewed as having some form of racial bias. Specially if the story line blurs the line between zombie disease infection and AIDS. This is what I think will be the touchy area between the Real Africa and a computer based Africa with disease infected mobs.