News Capcom: "Resident Evil 5 is not racist"

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07...s-not-racist/1

Resident Evil 5's producer has defended the title against cries of racism, saying that many of developers working on the game are black.

[Arkanrais]

fighting hoards of white zombies = not racist
fighting hoards of multi raced zombies = not racist
fighting hoards of mexican, asian or european zombies = not racist
fighting black zombies = racist
what a load of complete bullsh*t.
it reminds me of this: a white man beats up a white man, its assault. a black man beats up a white man, its assault. a white man beats up a black man, its a racist hate crime.
I think the people who are calling the developers racist, are being racist them self (edit: being racist by assuming the developers are being racist, therefore assuming racism. also I count their 'there were no black developers, I bet' comment as being racist).
goddamn 'only white people can be racist' attitudes.

[Narishma]

I'll pick it up when they release a PC version.

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Narishma

I'll pick it up when they release a PC version.

Good man, focus on the important issues! PC version is always better.

[will.]

Originally Posted by Arkanrais

I think the people who are calling the developers racist, are being racist them self.

Very true. In developed countries the people that are always calling people racists are the true racists themselves. I'd bet half of them aren't even of a minority. Just dicks that like to complain.

[Kúsař]

Originally Posted by CardJoe

Good man, focus on the important issues! PC version is always better.

PC version of RE4 suffers from terrible graphics. It might have been a damn great piece of horror game. I heard strange rumours RE4 was derived from PS2 version(why not to XBOX? Probably false rumour...)

[M4RTIN]

Re4 wasnt on the xbox is probably the reason right there.. its on the gamecube first, then ps2 with an extra chapter, then wii with better graphics, the extra chapter and of course wii-mote support

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Kúsař

PC version of RE4 suffers from terrible graphics. It might have been a damn great piece of horror game. I heard strange rumours RE4 was derived from PS2 version(why not to XBOX? Probably false rumour...)

I heard post-patch it got a lot better though.

[cjoyce1980]

still on topic here then......

[Tyrmot]

Another case of someone with a chip on their shoulder taking a prime opportunity to push their own agenda, all too common these days I'm afraid.

Since the game was made by Capcom (Japanese) it seems fairly obvious that no (or very few) black people worked on the game. Probably about the same as the number of white people who worked on it for that matter.

It seems to me that the sooner people stop spuriously fanning the flames of this debate the sooner it will all die out and we can get on with things.

[Kúsař]

Concerning that racism nonsense about RE5 - Capcom deserves public apology. The guy who said that probably doesn't know what racism is...

Originally Posted by CardJoe

I heard post-patch it got a lot better though.

I'll look round for it, thanks!

[frontline]

How does anyone know whether it is or is not racist until it has been released? People on here are just as guilty at jumping to conclusions as the journalist mentioned.

Not everyone has 'a chip on their shoulder' and as a person of mixed race myself, i can assure you that i didn't imagine the abuse i got as a kid in a mostly white school.

Saying that, i would hope the developers know what they are doing and that the stroryline is both interesting and offers non-stereotypical characters (but then that's probably asking a lot based on 99% of other games released).

[benjamyn]

Originally Posted by CardJoe

Good man, focus on the important issues! PC version is always better.

RE4 PC sucked major ass. RE2/3 don't play very well with a keyboard either!

[Nexxo]

I'm not sure what trailer they are referring to. The E3 2008 trailer shows nothing that could possibly be interpreted as racism. The lead guy is white (so what?) but the female lead looks decidedly Hispanic/Asian. Nice equal representation there. More likely it was Extended Trailer 4 that was referred to:



Gosh, look at all those black people. Could that be because, perchance, the setting is somewhere in North Africa?

PSX Extreme makes a similar observation:

Originally Posted by PSX Extreme

A blog dedicated to African-American females, Black Looks, has called the Resident Evil 5 trailer "problematic on so many levels."

"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."

Now, while we understand the complaint - and we hear this blog isn't the only source speaking out - there is the possibility that Capcom isn't racist, and that they simply placed the game's setting in Africa. ...in Africa, if we're not mistaken, there are African-American individuals. To jump ahead in the story, if they're all getting infected by whatever this zombie virus is, it would stand to reason there'd be a lot of black zombies. Chris Redfield being white doesn't seem relevant, as he has been white since the start of the series, and up until now, we have difficulty remembering even a single African-American undead opponent for Chris. In other words, the heroes in Resident Evil have been mowing down white zombies for over a decade.

But we do understand the complaint. It'll be interesting to see how Capcom responds to it.

More telling is how posters on Black Looks' webpage comment on this:

And yet RE4 had no problems when the “inhuman savages” are white.

Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth.

Just thought you might want to knowm this game is made by the Japanese, not Americans.

Also, if white men, hispanics and asians can be zombies, so should black people. Why should black people be so special in that they’re the only race that cannot be zombies?

Also, I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic, but you’re coming off as being racist yourself because you think all zombies should be white.

Some of the most eloquent comments are:

In all the other Resident Evil games, and there are more than just four others, the primary enemies have been white, as the storyline and the outbreak has always taken place in the U.S. or, as in RE 4, Spain.

Many of the enemies throughout the series weren’t even human at all, much less zombies, and in RE 4 none of them were zombies. It was more like the people being mind controlled.

The White Man is a returning character from RE, and now the game appears to be set in Africa. According to the statistics of racial make-up in the world, I’d actually say that whites have been unfairly discriminated against in the series, if anything, since so many of them have been enemies in RE. It only seems fair that Africans get treated equally, and with only one game full of primarily black enemies to six games full of primarily white, from a racial viewpoint I’d say that the Africans are getting off easy.

Now I’d expect, as this has been the case with all other RE games, that this game will be rated Mature, which means only 17+ can buy it. Currently, our retailers have something like an 86% denial for underage buyers, which is far better than the movie industry does at keeping age restricted content away from young people.

Also, since the game is rated M, I find it highly unlikely that Capcom will market it to people under that age, i.e. there won’t be commercials or trailers on kids channels such as Cartoon Network and Nickleodeon, or in kid movies such as Cars and Ratatouille. So beyond that, I don’t see how they could move further from marketing to kids without stopping their marketing.

Hell, adult women are bigger players and purchasers of games that minor males, and the average age of gamers in general is around 33 years old, so specifically advertising towards children would be a waste of money.

And about trying to seed racism in the minds of our youth, the last time I checked Resident Evil was made by Capcom, a Japanese company. And I’ve never heard of the Japanese committing cultural war against Africans or the African culture.

So before you jump to conclusions based off of a short and extremely pre-release trailer, can you please do some actual research and think beyond the surface about what it is that you’re attacking?

Resident Evil 1-3, set in Racoon City, Midwest US with all the zombies of white American decent, oh perfectly fine.

Resident Evil 4, taking out of the US setting and going to Europe, into a Spanish village (or at least Spanish speaking), and killing of the infested locals? Well, they are European.

Set it in a African village where the local people are black, and it is racist. Alternatives… alternatives. I got a few.

We can still set it in Africa, and change all the African people to white. I am sure that is a real great way of making them happy.

Well we could stop trying to set games in Africa. Pretend Africa and villages and cities where black people are the majority do not exist. Yea, that is perfect, lets pretend these people do not exist whenever we make violent video games. Can’t discriminate if your never represented in games.

Or we could make the main character Japanese, or Hispanic, or black, would that be better somehow, if the main character was not white? Because only if the protagonist is white can it be racist, and any other race would only have the village and its inhabitance in context, where a white protagonist has to be racist?

And of course, this game marketed to children, despite the rest of the Resident Evil games being rated M, for Mature, to be the parents decision of 17- if it is suitable.

Nobody complained about Black Hawk Down did they. I swear if Resident Evil 5 gets banned over this rubbish.

[Drexial]

first to quote from the PSX quote above

"the game's setting in Africa. ...in Africa, if we're not mistaken, there are African-American individuals." Africa is made up of African-Americans?

If stated correctly, I completely agree with the comment. Its in Africa... I'm fairly certain if the zombie apocalypse happened they wouldn't be left out.

[pimlicosound]

I always find it amusing when people seem to think there's something American about black people in Africa. Like when Bill Clinton referred to Nelson Mandela as an "African American". In what way, precisely, is he American?

I also found it very amusing that commentary on Black Looks, posted by Nexxo above, constantly offered black people a capital letter (as in "Black"), where as white people were denied this favour. *Cough* racism *cough*

I can only laugh at the lunacy of various "victim" groups, claiming grievances against the (white, western, democratic, middle-class, educated, heterosexual) world. The only other option is to go quite mad.

[Tulatin]

I think Yahzee over at Zero Punctuation hit the nail on the head regarding commentary on this issue - he'll call racism when every black zombie comes shambling at you, munching down on fried chicken, toting some watermelon, and grape drink.

[Thacrudd]

How can you even argue with that level of ignorance? Once again a prime example of people fearing/hating what they don't understand.

[Nexxo]

"Is it because I is black?"

[1ad7]

What I am surprised at is that a "journalist" is the one pulling this all up.... You would think there would be a little more intelligence then again look at the evening news...