African Women's Blog Critical of Resident Evil 5 Trailer

African Women's Blog Critical of Resident Evil 5 Trailer

August 1, 2007
Capcom's Resident Evil 5 hasn't even got a release date, but it' s already drawn the ire of a blog devoted to African women.

Black Looks calls into question the game's setting as depicted in the trailer, first shown at this year's E3 in Santa Monica:
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.

The point has been made by some gamers as well. In fact, GamePolitics reader Quad9Damage raised the same issue in a letter to GP just the other day.



UPDATE: Bonnie Ruberg has an article on this topic in the Village Voice.

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When I first saw the trailer like this, sadly the first thing that popped in my head was "awww hell, some idiot is going to use this as some damn racial flame war claiming the white man is beating down on the black man again!". Pathetic.

People should look at it this way, the second thing that popped into my head.
There was a great movie put out in 1988 called "The Serpent and the Rainbow" which delved into the zombie-like practices of witch doctors in Haiti. This trailer for RE5 reminded me of that as many of the zombies reminded me of the Haitians in TSATR.
Im black and I experience racism from ppl all the time, I have learned to deal with it. White ppl like to rationalize that it isn't that much of a problem,(I guess it helps them sleep at night). I agree with the alot of the comments made above. We as blacks are a bit overly sensitive about the issue, but I think whites are also a bit insensitive about it too. Remember you were not on the receiving end of organized racism. And even though legal segragation ended in the late 60's early 70's. Racist attitudes in every sense of the word still exist in our great county.
Guys,

Note that the blogger in question is in Africa, or at least is fighting for African equality. I'm assuming that after apartheid they're still having quite a few race equality issues like the ones we in America had during the 60s. Now a lot of us really don't care so much about race (because there's so many other reasons to not like each other!) but for her she's always watching for when the next infringement might make her life more difficult in her homeland. Now she's made some VERY racist statements after that ("All zombies should be white from now on") as well as a particularly boneheaded statement ("I'd love to play RE4, let me get it from my 10 year old nephew") but we may be able to chalk it up to frustration, but honestly this entire fiasco could stem from the fact that she just doesn't know any better.
Why don't we find offense in BET TV? I doubt Humanity will ever leave this issue (racism) behind them.
Look i have played many games which i killed white people. i am black, african. and i find nothing wrong with the game. We blacks did not have a problem killing white people in the other resisdent evils so why should there be a problem in killing black people this time. its only fair. but also in the spirit of fairness, WHY ISNT THE MAIN CHARACTER BLACK THIS TIME?
Parents are the one who buys these games and supervise them. Dipshits. And what kid is really going to hate blacks from this? I bet all the black kids that played RE2 (lol white zombies) never had any racial distress. So why does it work in reverse? They're now judging us because were white. Why do they have the right? If someone wants to bitch at me my email is techno_jes@hotmail.com

Go ahead. I looooove hatemail.
The most ridiculous part of this whole shitfuck, is that the game isn't even out yet, this whole PR mess is just due to a fucking trailer.
WOW this is STUPID!!!!!!!!!

so what if a white man wrote the song "read a book" i wonder how everyone would react.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN2VqFPNS8w

i also wonder if this Kym person would pat her self on the back if chris redfield was a black person

p.s. and i was at this black look website and i quote comment mrs. kym made

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

SO not cool

http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/resident_evil_5.html
If these type of people want equality, why is it these equality groups are always the 1st ones to make an issue of skin colour or sexuality. In a perfect world someone would look at the video and go "that guy is killing zombie" but these groups who demand equality look at it and split that white/black line all over again. Its groups or ppl like them that keep racism alive.
There have been African-American supporting characters, including STARS member Kenneth Sullivan. More recently we've seen Federal communications expert Ingrid Hunnigan in RE4, who got a surprised reaction not because she was female or African-American, but because of her age.

I can now see where the knee-jerk reaction would be "there is a greater purpose behind this," and I'm -quite- sorry for that. Resident Evil is survival/horror and not everyone's cup of tea; furthermore, knowledge of the series gives context to a lot of the unease I've seen. However, it's a pity that people who speak up about things that seem disturbing to them get such sharp hostility equally centered on race.

I hope we can discuss things like portrayals of peoples in video games in a calmer forum someday, and I hope that RE5 thoroughly puts people's misgivings to rest and is much enjoyed by those disturbed who give it a try.
I have a solution: during the game, Chris picks up an alternate costume where he is a black guy.
http://askthisblackwoman.com/2007/08/01/more-on-resident-evil-5.aspx

"More on Resident Evil 5
Posted by Black Woman at August 1, 2007 11:52 AM and is filed under In the News,Racism
Last night I posted a short piece on the new video game Resident Evil 5. I linked an article in the Village Voice by Bonnie Ruberg, a self-proclaimed white person, who questioned the possibility of racially problematic images (racist?) in the game. I also posted the piece at Blacklooks. Never before have I received more hateful comments by angry gamers who called me everything from a "nigger" to a "black hooker" for agreeing with Ruberg that these images of Black people (Black zombies) are problematic.



The response from gamers around the world was shocking. While I think we could have an intellectual debate about racist imagery in video games, there is no debating the blatant racism from many of Resident Evil 5's supporters. Their comments were hostile and violent...much like the game itself. The ability to post comments, both on ATBW and Blacklooks, had to be disabled. Here's a direct quote from a gamer who disagreed with my post: "Get back into the cotton fields, you filthy nigger."

I am not the first or the only person to question the imagery in Resident Evil 5. Check out this post by blogger Jason Ellis at microscopiq. Ellis' post is an interesting look at the images of Black people throughout modern time.

I confess I don't know much about video games, gamers, etc. I don't play video games, but I occasionally play solitaire on my gf's PC. However, given the response from gamers... I think we should all be very afraid. Many of these folks seem like the type who would try to reenact scenes from Resident Evil 5. Can you say Columbine?"
The comments at the Black Looks article have now been disabled, which tells me that they're not very open to discussing the issue. Sure, the spammers are annoying, but you don't cut off all discussion because of them, you just ignore them.
i mean truly give it a break this game is awesome!! i downloaded the trailer on my xbox360 and i am def. going to reserve the game.
i would feel sorry if im the son of Kym because i wont be able to have this game. luckily my parents could see that this game is just a game and that only people that are mental in the head are going to reinact ?spl? everything that chris does.

so i throw this question to Kym (the person who started this)= where were you when San Andreas came out. oo wait now i remember the character is a black man that is part of a gang and kills people everyday, so it must be ok.

this is the new trailer. the game play is a masterpiece.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22801.html
Are you kidding me with this? Stop crying you silly c*nt. typical racist BS. People like you suck you race card pulling jerkoff.
If anyone is interested, here is Kym's website. http://www.kymplatt.com/

She sounds like some hippie racist. This girl cares the hell out of me.
Well said sharky, well said. Anyone who thinks racism doesn't exist need only read some of the more outrageous and blatant comments in this very thread. Probably one of the BIGGEST threads on GP to date.

I personally PREFER racism to be blatant and in your face because then its easier to identify. When its subtle, like when 90% of protagonists in media are portrayed as white in this country, then you have a harder time pointing out WHY its racist.

We MUST remember that this is a video game that hasn't even been released yet and that those among us who are true gamers come to this site to discuss topics JUST LIKE THIS so that others will learn from it and gain a better insight into video game culture and those who partake of it rather than rush to judgement and broad sweeping generalizations like the author of the Blog entry this thread is discussing.
this is stupid...
You open up the can, expect to get the worms.

"I confess I don’t know much about video games, gamers, etc. I don’t play video games, but I occasionally play solitaire on my gf’s PC. However, given the response from gamers… I think we should all be very afraid. Many of these folks seem like the type who would try to reenact scenes from Resident Evil 5. Can you say Columbine?”

Solitaire? You're fucking 1337.

How the hell would gamers reenact fucking RE5? For one there would have to be zombies, something that doesn't exist (yeah, she's a learned one). Secondly they'd have to be in Africa, which is loaded with third world countries, which means no video games, video gamers, or, you know, development.

I think the governments of these countries are much more apt to cause mass violence against these African communities, but we can't really play the race card when it's black leaders committing genocide against black civilians, can we?

Or maybe you'll just blame the game when something like that happens. Stay off the internet until you get some reading done, you aren't doing anything except instigating more racism.

"Can you say Columbine?"

Yes, it's name is Kym.
That's not good. I like Resident Evil series but black people as zombies ? Scary. That's like racist or something, jeez. Not good at all.
Ok so, did you ever notice that if you're white and you say something like, "That guy is ugly." And then he happens to be black you get called racist, but the other way around people just agree with you. I mean, for some reason people still take into account the effects of slavery, which was abolished HUNDREDS of years ago. Many people still think white people are racist, and they call us that. Really that is racism, making an assumption about somebody because of their race. People are too damn touchy. It is annoying. And anyone who complains about someone being racist because that person is a different race should... die. They are contradicting themselves... idiots.
i knew this was going to happen

some how i just knew

but this game is NOT INTENDEND
i knew this was going to happen

some how i just knew

but this game is NOT INTENDEND for children it intended for adults
"I confess I don't know much about video games, gamers, etc. I don't play video games, but I occasionally play solitaire on my gf's PC. However, given the response from gamers... I think we should all be very afraid. Many of these folks seem like the type who would try to reenact scenes from Resident Evil 5. Can you say Columbine?"

Such a tolerant blogger to say this of gamers.

Source: http://askthisblackwoman.com/2007/08/01/more-on-resident-evil-5.aspx
i knew this was going to happen

some how i just knew

but this game is NOT INTENDEND for children it intended for adults
You guys all sound pretty racist to me. There's no intelligent thought behind most of these comments, I'm guessing most of you are very young else god save us all.

The reason that people are offended about this is because it is a white person killing black people. Any oher version of resi has been white on white with maybe a token black involved. Anyone who thinks that the many years of oppression has no bearing on the injustice we feel today, obviously has no idea what it is like to be oppressed.

I'm not actually bothered about resi5, even as a black person I can see that this is just nonsense, but I'm not about to call anyone who is seriously offended by this stupid. We all have our own perceptions and they should be respected even if we do not agree with them.

Think about it, how many of you would buy a game depicting a yardie rasta gunning down the white suburban folk of Essex, regardless of how rabid they may or may not be. Actually that sounds like fun....
[...] A post on Blacklooks (via Gamepolitics) that was apparently a  response to a Village Voice article that had originally brought it to their attention, indicates that they have a big problem with the Resident Evil 5 trailer. “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. “I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through.” [...]
Wait wtf... she was born in Ohio and moved to NYC? The few shreds of innocence I thought she may have had just went away. She has all the resources she needs to delve into the situation and decided to take the loud, moronic way through this. And here I thought she lived in South Africa and was a part of their struggle... Eff that, she can go away now.
As a black gamer, I'm a bit torn here.

On one hand, I think that the Resident Evil 5 trailer, when taken at face value, can obviously be seen as offensive to black people and really anyone who doesn't take well to scenes of a white guy killing truckloads of black people. I can fully understand why people would see such a game as being degrading and setting bad social precedent. I think that the people who on this thread who have made comments along the lines of "black people complain too much!/what about all the white zombies?/etc" have a fundamental lack of understanding concerning America's racial history, the use of institutionalized racism as a buffer for white privilege, the effects of those things on the present-day black mindset.

At the same time, I think that black bloggers who are dismissing Resident Evil 5 as unbridled racism are displaying a (severe) ignorance of the greater context here. As others have noted, Res Evil is a Japanese game developed by a Japanese company. In light of that fact and considering the very different pool of cultural experiences the developers of the game share (as opposed to, say, Grand Theft Auto's developers), it's reasonable to assume that this backlash was neither intended nor unanticipated on the part of Capcom. Without knowing more about the game, it's a bit foolish to assume that this is another attempt to vilify black people. Long story short, people on both sides of this debate need to do their homework before spewing their rhetoric.

As for all the complaining about black people complaining, when is society going to understand that black bloggers (you could replace "black blogger" with "Jesse Jackson" or "Spike Lee") don't speak for all of us? People are taking what appears to be a vocal minority and interpreting their viewpoint as that of some sort of fictitious monolithic black mass. Think before you rant.
An openly-lesbian female in south Africa? You must be new to this planet.
@Ezza

"Think about it, how many of you would buy a game depicting a yardie rasta gunning down the white suburban folk of Essex, regardless of how rabid they may or may not be."

San Andreas starred a black guy killing white guys, and it sold 9 million copies.
@Ezza

Remember the stupid Haitian controversy over GTA: Vice City. Remember how Take 2 balked and took out the references like "I'm gonna kill all you god damn Haitians"? That's the reason to get pissed at this bitch right there, cause stupid shit like this hurts the games immensely. Plus it's not like she's particularly virtuoso herself.

"I occasionally play solitaire on my gf’s PC." -Kym Platt, Gaming Expert

"this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people." -Kym Platt, Marketing Consultant, Capcom of America

"Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth." -Kym Platt, White Zombie Supremacist

You can't be this fucking stupid on the internet and expect not to get fucked with.
This is what happens when Africans start using the Internet. They just don't understand entertainment, fiction and video games (obviously) and all that other stuff.

The internet is serious business!!!!11oneoneshift+one, to them...

But I agree with the fact that they see anything with "blacks" as being racist. For example these "blacks" are saying that the recent media attention on Micheal Vick is related to his color... Funny how they totally missed the entire Lindsey Lohan situation that also had just as much, if not more, media attention...

Anyway these African complainers should contact Jack Thompson and call him out to Africa so they can cry on his shoulder. If we're lucky, they'll all be eaten by lions and we can enjoy our 'entertainment' without the drama...
"But the point isn’t to smack one more label on mainstream video games (violent, sexist, racist). The point is that—for this white girl, at least—the Resident Evil 5 trailer is strangely disturbing."
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/07/zombies_...

Now I bet the white girl is racist too.
This lady needs to get her facts straight. There is no way this game is being marketed by kids or young adults. If she wasn't so ingnorant she would know that the average gamer is in his 30s. This is just crazy and I agree with what most say in here. It's a double standard that needs to be pointed out not to mention the simple fact that IT'S JUST A GAME!!!
so killing a white man is good, but not a black man? wtf... this world is crazy... get over it.
I'll also add a couple more things.

1) I'm not offended by the trailer, if my commentary in my last post wasn't transparent enough.

2. Capcom could make a lot of this go away - and not sacrifice much in the way of creative vision - by simply making the protagonist black.
@ Shoomduck

"This is what happens when Africans start using the Internet. They just don’t understand entertainment, fiction and video games (obviously) and all that other stuff."

Do you suck at jokes or do you just suck at making comments that aren't completely fucking asinine?
When I first saw this article, i was in awe. I knew that something like this would crop up sooner or later. But even still, you watch that trailer, and you will see not only black zombies getting shot, but also white (the guy who Chris punches in the face, he's white.)

This is truly pathetic and petty, trust someone to play the "race card" once again because their fragile little disillusioned world has been shattered by reality. Resident Evil 5 is set in Africa, and guess who live in Africa? The majority being BLACK people! I think that Capcom should stand strong and not change it because of being feared "racist". Its not like Chris is in there armed to the teeth intending to slaughter every man woman and child based on them being black. They become infected and he has to defend himself. Case closed.
"As for all the complaining about black people complaining, when is society going to understand that black bloggers (you could replace “black blogger” with “Jesse Jackson” or “Spike Lee”) don’t speak for all of us? People are taking what appears to be a vocal minority and interpreting their viewpoint as that of some sort of fictitious monolithic black mass. Think before you rant."

People react to them because they're the only ones speaking out about it. Just like the game industry, when only the clueless are the only ones who are talking, you have to listen to them.

It's stupid, but it's not like we've seen it before.
Wow, a lot of comments for this artical, lol. I hope Capcom doesn't change it, that would probably push back the release date.
@ Terrible

thats one game, i was sayin they barely appear as a main character or someone in the limelight, but i wouldnt expect your dumbass to understand that cuz it looks like u cant even read
I think the company is just trying out a different setting. It just happens that most of the population in Africa is black, so it makes sense to make zombies in Africa black.
You know, I find it ironic. In GTA: San Andreas, you play as a black man and go around killing people, yet you didn't see white people complaining. In Resident Evil 4, you played as a white man killing off tons of Spaniards, yet you didn't see Spaniards complaining.

Now, of course, you're in Africa, killing zombies... and leave it to the black people to complain. Seriously, people, get over it.
yeah, its too bad we have to look at these black people all the time.... but atleast we get to kill them :). Those damn black people
this lady is very stupid and ignorant ......if shes so intent on the supposed white ppl killing the blacks in RE5 then why dont whites asians hispanics protest against blacks because of frickin CJ in San Andreas and his group of black thugs who go and kill ppl just like that at least RE5 has a purpose and thats to kill zombies/las plagas/umbrella.........i love GTA though.....take your anger out on video games not ppl....
Dear Puti Tang,

After reading this article I find it an obligation to tell you that there have been many games Resident Evil games, before this game. And all of the zombies in the previous games were of European descent. Now, I can only guess that this lady is a person who will complain on just about everything. I suppose if they hadn't included Africa in the zombie demographic she would question the gamers underlining "racial" tones, and ask why they didnt include Africans.
This lady clearly is just some Neo-Panther Anti-White racist who is looking for a reason to complain about something. If there were only zombies of european descent who lived in africa, the lady would probably cry over how the gamers are trying to rob her "people" of their land. I know that this comment wont do much, and honestly I just don't care, but I hope my cynical words peirce the air somewhere, and it hopefully reaches her ears.
People seriously, it's just a GAME
Now even saying that it's somekind of conspiracy against black people, is racist in itself, I don't see people bitching about the masses of white people who get shot in almost every game


Simply put, your point of view is retarted
As a black person myself I am not offended... but if they want an easy way out of this they could simply write in a black main character (but I'm sure there already is one)

It's Resident Evil... it's obvious that the portrayed attackers are infected with something. And given RE4s shops not all of them are going to turn out to be after your ass...
I would like to say that the first time I saw the trailer for this game it had never crossed my mind that it was really black people that are being killed, despite the insistence that they are being portrayed this way. This is for multiple reasons:

Reason 1: I played RE4, and noticed how similar the Ganados looked to human beings. It was a new direction to take the zombie virus, and I thought that it was pretty cool. I realized that the African villagers attacking (yes, attacking - Chris Redfield is not kicking the door of an African village down and going rambo on a bunch of innocent children) Redfield were zombies, and I knew that they were the same as the Plagas in RE4, only in a different locale. All I could really think was, "Wow! How did the zombie virus get HERE?" instead of "Wow! He's killing BLACK PEOPLE!". In other words, I knew that the people in question were not people, but zombies, ad were being presented as such.

Reason 2: Normal people do not gang up and attack people just because. This is a Resident Evil game, not GTA. They're obviously zombies, and everything from their gait to their bared teeth shows them this way. In no way would I consider these infected villagers (just like in RE4) real people.

Reason 3: It is a video game. This point has been made, but it is also a video game about zombies. These people are simulated. It is no attempt at brainwashing. It is a game, nothing more, about killing zombies. The fact that they are African is because the game takes place in Africa.

Overall, I was shocked to hear that this game was being considered racist, or influencing racism, as this had never occurred to me. Zombies are zombies. Another thing that I would like to add is that I am fifteen. Although my generation is portrayed as impressionable, insenstive, soda-guzzling, acne-covered apathetics, I would like to take this chance to say that neither I nor anyone that I know would have remotely considered this game showing or influencing bigotry out of virtue of sheer common sense, and essentially anyone that identifies this game as such probably shouldn't be permitted to purchase these games in the first place.
[...] So, the trailers for Resident Evil 5 have been out for a while now. They’ve received a lot of feedback, look gorgeous, and have been accused of being racist. Yeah, Chris sure has his hands full fighting all those black people… [...]
[...] Kym Platt reacted to the release of Resident Evil 5, the latest in a series of games from Capcom where the protagonist kills zombies. The zombies in this case are roaming through Africa, and they are dark-skinned, being shot by a white protagonist. Platt found this disturbing and posted her reactions to the trailer of the game. GamePolitics.com mentioned Platt’s critique, and received over 800 comments in response, some supportive, some critical, and some offensive. Platt has responded to these comments on her personal blog, and Sokari has responded on Black Looks. [...]
That woman is dumb, seriously, HOW MANY GAMES about the World War 2 haved comes out in wich we where shooting Germans? She didn't really understand the meaning of "Why it was black people that where infected this time", it's because the organisation that spreed the virus in these games are doing it on POOR places, in Resident Evil 4, it was in Mexico, why? They don't have a lot of medication, hospital, so it was the PERFECT place to spreed it. Now it's in a black country, and look at the houses, why they're are spreeding it there? BECAUSE THEY'RE POOR! And why you're not seeing: Canada, USA, France, place like this being infected in the new Resident Evils? Because we got the defense against those things, period. That woman should just take a chill pill, sit on her couch, and look how this game is awesome. Thank you
For people who have never played or have never known anything about the Resident Evil saga, it's all fiction and personally, it hasn't have any influential effect on me to play any of the prior games. It might appear that 'a white man in miltary clothes is killing black people'; however -and I think the RE followers will agree with me- there is a desire from the audience to get a more realistic game every time, I think that's why zombies are more normal-human-like this time.
As in any other case, further knowledge and research is required in order to make a fair evaluation. I would suggest everyone to go through the whole story of Resident Evil before making any judgement. The fact that the zombies look every time more normal is part of the evolution of the story. Besides, there hasn't been any RE prior game that deals with masses becoming zombies other than people with white skin. I am not white but latino and I would not find any problem if the next Resident Evil story dealt with latin people as zombies. My advice consists of a responsibility call for parents and people in general, since these kinds of games are for certain ages, which is clearly stated in the game's rating.
This game is gonna rock! Racism? That's for whiners. A game's a game. ;)
All i can say about this is welcome to the internet whoever wrote the Blog. Here on the net there is no race, no age. Instead there is how each of us act and what each of us do. Its a meritocracy. The crowd has judged you and found you unworthy. So realize that a lot of us don't give a shit about whether the zombies are black, white or alien. Instead we just want to play a game series that has a tendency to be really really good.
The thing that bothers ME the most is that she says she'd prefer all zombies to be black from this day forth
The one thing that bothers me more than even calling RE5 racist is the fact that the blogger says the game is marketed to children. It is surely going to be rated M for Mature, meaning it is not intended for anyone under seventeen. So, it's not intended for children.
Honestly, I have been playing RE since the first game on the PS1. There have been black S.T.A.R.S. members as well as black zombies in a few of the games.

1. I'm a black person and it truly pisses me off to see someone bitching the way that they are. Not all people are this ignorant and try to find racism in EVERY little thing out there. I mean honestly black people, where were you at in the last game when they were shooting spaniards? Maybe it's just an issue when you decide you need to get your face in the news or get published somewhere.

2. Capcom is indeed a Japanese company. I'm sure that they didn't decide, "Hey, let's make a racist ass game and market it to young children."

3. The author of this game is truly a moron. I'm sorry but if you have no idea what the game is about, then why are you talking about it? Perhaps if you familiarized yourself with the entire series you'd realize they have never targeted a specific race. The games take place in a numerous amount of countries. They span from America to Europe. Now with this new game taking place in either Hati or Africa, there's an issue. STFU! You should really do research before typing up an article voicing your idiotic opinions on how something is racist.

4. [to the author of the article & anyone else being a whiny bitch] I love how you give an age demographic for which this game is aimed at. You obviously know nothing about the subject and you just figured that you'd jump in on some controversy. If you knew anything about video games as a whole you'd know they have a rating system just like films do. This game is rated M for Mature. That means that it's intended for gamers 18+. Show me how this is trying to show young white children how to kill blacks.

All in all, you should know what you are talking about before you go making assumptions about things and calling out racism at the first sight of black and white. We all know what they say about assumptions--you make an ass of you and mumptions. So as the previous statement ended: GTFOY and shut the hell up.

~theron_~
Ya do know that this is a game made by a Japanese company right?
Do you honestly think that Capcom gives a zombified rats ass about American morals? Hell no.
"Zombie stories originated in the Afro-Caribbean Vodoun belief system, so for a series that relies on zombies as its main antagonists, exploring the voodoo origins of zombie mythology seems only natural, and in order to do that you are going to end up exploring villages that just don't happen to have many Caucasians in them"~MIKE FAHEY.

So GTFO and shut the hell up about all this racist shit! The game looks awesome and i cant wait to kill me somes zombies!
i think every game should be about a white guy killing hordes of black guys. in fact...they should just skip the whole 1st person view with guns and just put you in a helicopter where you can simply drop bombs on whole villages in africa. I do complain about the graphics though, I don't think they really show expression of pain and horror on these black faces when you shoot them up! Cmon Capcom, get your sh*t together...if we're gonna kill these coons at least make it look real...thus making it more FUN! I REAAAALLY wanna see those white eyes and teeth when get wide when there's a knife comin at their neck! I mean realistically it's Darwin's theory of evolution all wrapped up in a pretty package for you. I think one day after we really do wipe them all out, black people will be right next to the monkeys at the zoo on the endangered species list.... Maybe they'll even have those crackers you can buy to feed them.
Just make the main character black and you can kill all the afri.. err zombies you want without having people bitch and whine. Either that, or give the gamer skins to choose for the character that you are playing. Personally, I would rather see the zombies look like Paki's or Indians. I would choose an asian guy as the skin, kill everyone, then nade myself. Just for fun... ya know...
I know a perfect solution. Just lose in the Game, this way the the african horde kills the white person, and then the game won't be racist, since its okay for them to kill a white person.
IT'S ONLY A GAME.....Why black people seem to see racism everywhere ???
I don't know if you remember ...but in the game '' dead rising'' there's a lot of white people who are zombies !!! So what ??? The games is suppose to take place in Africa...DO YOU SEE A LOT OF WHITE PEOPLE IN AFRICA....i don't think so !!! If the game would have take place in China...would the black community had say the same thing about the game ??? Sorry but i think that you use the word racism to easily !!! At this point, from the black community point of view ...we should all say that the ''Fruit of the Loom'' companie is racist...'cause they produce more white underpants that black underpants...
Please remember that it's only a game ...Nevermind who's community are the zombie's...play and smash them ...white zombies ...green zombies...yellow zombies...red zombies...black zombies...Who cares !!! IT'S A GAME !!! That's it....stop seeing racism everywhere...Thank you !
Really if people are that retarded not to be able to distinguish between a human and zombie they should just die. It's pretty obvious that that they are zombies or why would they attack him out of nowhere (I don't see the main protagonist having bunch of money or food on him either).
niggers should shut the fuck up already, all they fucking do is complain... NAACP should be national advancement for black ass niggers because when any race besides niggers cry out, theyre busy, but when coons cry out theyre all about it!! fuck that, you niggers should shut the fuck up and make something of yourself, hell even mexicans work more than you lazy mother fuckers do.
the racest stuff- LOL, really funny.
its in africa or somthing ppl get over it!! -

- on that note, capcom has prob pushed back the relese date just so they can set the story some where where their are hordes of white ppl to kill.... hum it cant be in north america -its all mexicans here, and we dont want to piss them off (no offense- ive got mnexican friends too), thought set the story in a trailer park and it should be smooth sailing.

- but hay wait a muinite, dont black people kill mases of black ppl too... makes you wonder - has this writer lady herd of whats happening in durfur??? i gess its like gangster talk, its ok for them to do it to eachother and its not ok for white ppl to.

-and hay i lived in Berkley CA, i was the one white kid in a fifteen block radius, almost all my friends where black - if an outbreak happend, and i had a machettie and an m16, i would have shot zombies regardless of race -- theyre ZOMBIES!!!!
Everyone knows black people are scarier and totally make for better zombies. Can't wait to get me some darkies!

All jokes aside, black people shoot black people all the time, why can't we even shoot undead black people?
This is ridiculous. The year is 2007, every aspect of life no longer needs to be dictated by a color! It's a video game, in which you kill zombies! If the name of this was "Ultra-Nazi 007" and you ran about and slaughtered these "savages" while barking racist epitaphs I could understand your outraged, but come on.

The Resident Evil series consistently changes locations during it's series (the last was Spain) so obviously the inhabitants of said region will change to reflect said region. Perhaps in the future all video games will have pink and yellow colored characters in them so as not to upset the sensibilities (sic) of some moronic alarmist who's quite clearly never done ANY research into said topic or even bothered to Google the name.

By writing this article you've proven your just as ignorant as the beer-swilling bigot flying a confederate flag in some backwoods US state. Any publication which would give you journalistic license should immediately be put out of business for further the struggles of an already disenfranchised people by pushing another BS reason as to why they should be persecuted. Way to keep yourself down... THE REASON THERE'S SUCH A RACIAL DIVIDE IN PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY IS BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE YOU CONTINUOUSLY FORCE THERE TO BE ONE!

I for one would love to speak to Ms. Rueberg and make her understand exactly how ignorant her simplistic (to say the least) view of race-relations will affect any person who reads it.

How could any 'credible' journal of opinion let a racist like her write for them with her obviously slanted racial prejudices?
alot of people are complaining that you can't tell that the black people in this game are cannibalistic mutants that are trying to kill you. probably because they are like that in real life anyway...
San Andreas contained a man armed with machine guns, rampaging cars, satchel charges, a military combat helicopter and jet fighter, a rocket launcher, a chainsaw, etc. the man was black, and most of the city was white, hispanic, asian, and black. but the shit hit the fan when he, like the billions of people before him, had sex with someone. Huh?
[b]alot of people are complaining that you can’t tell that the black people in this game are cannibalistic mutants that are trying to kill you. probably because they are like that in real life anyway…[/b]
[b]Hmm...alot of people are complaining that you can’t tell that the black people in this game are cannibalistic mutants that are trying to kill you. probably because they are like that in real life anyway…[/b]
It's just a game, they should stop this hypocrisy, this woman who make the blog, it's a just a dirty bitch who want to promote her self.

- It's always the same, when we kill whites peoples it's not a problem, but when we kill black, that's a problem !

- I'm not agree with thoses are saying that there os no black men in video games, "unreal II, all Unreal tournaments, a lot of sports games, games with rapers. Don't forget that a all of games are created in occidentals country, where there is most of whites men so if you create or play a game it's normal to want a caracter who is looks like to you ( but if you don't want to play with a game only because the hero is not white maybe you are racist...)

- If in a video game, we can kill whites peoples without problems
so we also can kill black peoples in video games too

- Treating black peoples apart to the others because of theirs colors, that is racism !

So, all who loves great video games like the RE series, Unite and fight the stupidity, for the liberty to play games that you want !
@dan

so wait anytime a white man kills black men, it is racial? That is a very stupid statement to make. Also anyone who is against racism should be offended by this? Why? He's not shooting them because they are black he is shooting them because they are zombies, if there was a white zombie in the bunch he would not hesitate to shoot them as he would shoot any other zombie. The thing is once you become a zombie you are not human anymore so what race you were no longer matters. Let me put it this way, say a large mob was trying to kill you, and you had a gun, lots of ammo and no means of escape, what would you do? You would probably kill them, or maybe not because you may have reservations about killing that much people, but say they are not people but instead lifeless drones that can't be reasoned with, drones that are not human anymore, now would you shoot em? You'd probably say yes, but even not the fact that they used to be black means absolutely nothing now since he can't be changed back now does it?
Hey, everyone, especially @Ariel

There is another white-looking (maybe hispanic?) person in the trailer, they show about 1 second of him talking to an African person in the full E3 trailer. I bet there will be people of other races there too, villains and good guys alike.
Dan- Thank you. Thats an outstanding answer. I'm bothered by the fact that racial profiling exists, and that if my name didn't sound American, I may not be called in for an interview. This is a problem that has to be solved from all angles by everyone. It's a matter of discrimination that we all have to work through.

As for the game...well, we've already gone there. It's a dead horse. The articles stemming from the game and the original article aren't really at issue, but it's the fact that race is brought up- that's the real issue here.

There are other places to fight that battle and have that talk. I don't this game was the right reason to bring up race and video games. I do think that other games were better for that discussion and that in this case, the monsters being black is a matter of geography. For something like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or Scarface, where a person of color was willingly taking part in unlawful or immoral activity...that's where this needs to be.

I don't think that removing depictions of negative acts is the solution. I actually don't have a solution as I think that avoiding depictions shows fear of addressing the issue. I also think that those that aren't able to really understand that the depictions are entertainment, or for educational reasons, would take something and go entirely overboard with their opinions.
What a heaping steaming pile of bullcrap.
@Dan:

Putting them on a pedestal won't increase equality -- it will only lend credibility to the white supremacists' argument that blacks and whites are fundamentally different. We as a society, and as a race for that matter, need to stop worrying so damn much about who might take offence and get to work on the REAL problems faced by minority groups. Poverty immediately comes to mind.
Perhaps she wants reality.

The hero should therefore be Black African.

That way, it represents what is going on in Africa in the present day, not representing stereotypical racism or appearing to represent past events of the English invading Africa.

:: shrugs ::

Whatever. It's fiction. If someone has a problem telling the difference between a fictional story and the real world, they need to seek psychological help.

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
"What this SHOULD be about is sensitivity."



This is about sensitivity, with 12 games bearing the Resident Evil title for far too long the black zombie hasn't been represented. This exclusion shall end and black zombie equality will reign!
A white man shooting Haitians that don't look like, nor act like, zombies is a major issue because it has happened in real life to African-Americans on a scale no other nationality can compare. Google the May 31, 2001 Tulsa race riot killings and educate yourself. Resident Evil 5 is act imitating history that should never be repeated.
From what I have seen of the trailer, there is a scene which shows a black man being held down and infected or changed into a zombie (or whatever the enemies are). This would imply that all of the people are being changed against their will. The reason they are attacking him is not because black people are savages, but because these particular black people have been exposed to some kind of toxin or agent that causes this behaviour.

If people would only look at the context of this stuff before immediately decrying it as racist. As everyone above pointed out, no-one complained about the defeating of all the white zombies in the previous games. Perhaps it was more transparent that they were zombies as they shuffled about slowly. With the new "24 hours later" style fast zombies it might not be as apparent, but still, this is jumping to a conclusion that insults Capcom by accusing them of racism where none exists.

The accusations at the end are the worst however.

"including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages"
WRONG. It depicts black people who have been transformed through some kind of plot device into something not human that makes them act savagely. The savage behaviour is not due to the colour of their skin, and to suggest otherwise is a false accusation of racism.

"the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing"
The white man is Chris Redfield who has been a protagonist throughout the entire Resident Evil series. They are continuing a story and want to continue using the characters that people have become familiar with. If the protagonist were black, I believe this person would still cry racism, stating that Capcom is trying to get black people to destroy each other...

"the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults"
How many times does this have to be said? Mature content video games are not marketed to children. Young adults (of appropriate age) are perfectly ok playing the game. The fact that children often want to do things that older people do combined with the fact that many parents do not monitor or care what their children watch or do does not mean these things have been marketed to them.

"Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."
Once again, young people should not be playing the game due to the violence it contains. On top of that, I would like to point out that many years ago, people feared, hated and destroyed black people because they saw them as different. Now that (more or less) people are treated equally, saying that black people in video games being shot is bad while they have no problem with whites being shot in previous games is absurd. All people are equal despite differences in skin colour, whether it be in real life, or as heroes or villains in fictional stories told through video games.
Black, White, Yellow, Red, Brown or Albino.. it makes no difference. Their brains are all grey, when you blow their undead heads off. :)
Slavery. Pure and cut, slavery.

This is not about whites feeling guilty. Of course you shouldn't feel guilty for something that, although the effects of it are still evident, you weren't responsible for.

What this SHOULD be about is sensitivity. The understanding by whites about this country's checkered past. The admission that things in this country are still terribly skewed in favor of whites. The realization that until everyone is brought onto a level playing field, ANY depiction of the dominant race in this country performing negative acts against minorities (especially ones they enslaved, beat, lynched, raped, murdered) needs to be removed and scrutinized further.

@ Kit: I don't think ONLY blacks should be offended.

As a white male, I think ANYONE who is against racism and prejudice should be offended by this. The insinuation that ONLY blacks can be offended by this is in and of itself the proof of white denial. You don't have to be black to be offended by this. You just have to have a heart, a conscience, and a clue about race in this country.
Wow, it took longer for this to show up than I expected. The second I saw the RE5 trailer i knew someone was going to point out the whole racial angle but i had figured a week after E3 tops.
A whole lot of videogames include the killing, hunting, exterminating and feet-tickling of people from countries, ethnic groups and even several blends of religion. However, those are videogames. And they're usually set on a theme.

For many others can be said that they follow historical events. It's perfectly fine to kill gazillions of germans in every world war shooter. Nobody's ever complained. They're Nazis.

For many of them there can be said that it's fantasy. It's made up. As with Resident Evil. It's perfectly fine to finish hordes of zombies, no matter where they come from. They're Zombies.

Why would there be anything wrong with that? If I were to make a game based on vampires, and how the player is going after them as a vampire killer, and those vampires just *happen* to bite several black people, should I switch off the cam and say "CUUUT! We can't do that, they must be treated special, we can't show them like this, we can only show them... just here and there, one at a time, so they don't complain they've been left out."?

This is what's wrong with the whole idea. You really have to accept that, in order for everybody to be treated equally, not special, you will have to *play* the bad guy too, from time to time, when it's play-time. Nobody's pointing at you saying that you're ideal for that role. It just happens to be *your turn*, and if you refuse, you single yourself out.
What a load of crap!

Movie makers and game developers should just stay away from Africa as a place setting for any of their projects because they might offend somebody.

You would think this person would have sued Jerry Bruckheimer for making Blackhawk Down. How was that NOT a setting where predominantly white folk were shooting black folk?
ok no worries that's cool, I guess it was just the words you used in your previous comment, i.e. 'everyone'
My bad...poor choice of words.
i think ethnicity is unimportant in this instance, although it's an easy mistake to make. alot of people are making the argument that in resident evil 4, no one was up in arms over the slaughtering virtual spanish villagers. the real gist of the game was not that you were killing anyone of a given ethnicity, but that the poor and downtrodden were made to suffer even *more* at the whims of a maniacal and sinister dictator. that's the true horror of the RE franchise - the innocent suffer even further, and are transformed into something utterly evil for the purpose of someone nefarious.

given that it appears capcom is continuing the storyline from the previous game in some fashion, that's almost certainly the theme here. what better place for an evil dictator to set up camp than in an economically depressed and lawless area where their activities will not be scrutinized? like it or not, the economic reality of many african nations are a perfect backdrop for this sort of horror detail.

don't like that this is a good backdrop for such fodder? then get off your butt and start donating to unicef, working for the red cross, and working for real and sustainable change in the world. and learn to see beyond black and white, because otherwise you're going to have *alot* of sacred cows to protect.
@ Mr_Tinkle
that comment was aimed at the people who think like that. I know not everyone does thinks that.
I am from Spain and I have to say that I enjoyed very much Resident Evil 4. In fact, I was glad that such a great game took place in my country. So far I have never met another Spaniard who disliked the game for the issue of killing Spaniards.

As stater by some participants, it is too soon to judge the game. If it is well done, it could deal with social and political issues that are usually rare in videogames, and therefore it could be exactly the oppossite of what Black Looks thinks. It also may have a native playable character. Time will tell.
@Da1rocky

"the only thing I’m pissed about is why the hell is everyone assuming thats all black people think like this lady. Like the first comment. (Too many to read the rest, sorry)"

well, if you had read the rest of the comments you would see that not everyone is assuming all black people think like that, in fact you've just picked up on one comment and made your own assumption there
Dan, the point was this:

Why should only blacks be offended? Why is it that blacks are the only ones worthy of consideration when it comes to issues of skin color or race?

I'm not attacking blacks in that comment or this, I'm attacking this view that in America, only racism leveled against blacks matters. No one cares about what happens to muslims, jews, asians, hispanics or anyone else.

And why should the treatment of blacks be the penultimate in racial mistreatment? Let's not go into ignorance: half of my family is black, and I've heard more than my fair share of stories about racism over the last few hundred years. And has slavery kept that half of my family down?

No. What has kept some members of that family down is their own laziness and ignorance. My stepdad broke out of that rut in rural Maryland. Years later, he's got a wife with a Master's Degree, one son with a Bachelor's, one working on his, and he has his own list of accolades. This goes along with his nice house by the lake and his cars. Not once did I ever hear dad say, "Man, slavery is keeping me down. White men are keeping me from being successful."

Dan, answer the question, and don't blow smoke at me: why only blacks? Why not anyone else? Are blacks the only ones allowed to be mad about this relative non-issue?
@Dan

Also remember that racism is not a solution to racism. If a group is being discriminated against, the worst thin they can do is take it out on someone else, which unfortunately I see quite a bit of.

Something Kit did have a point about. "Whites" are not in charge. A small, fairly insular group of whites are running things, of which the 'average' white person has about the same chance of breaking into as the average 'black' person... read: very very little. But people looking from the outside tend to just think 'white is white! all whites are in on it'. No.... we are treated just as badly. outgroup is outgroup.

And if you want to talk history... during the era of slavery, there were groups treated MUCH worse then the black slaves. A good example would be the Irish, who were basically considered 'cheaper then slaves' and usually ended up being locked into companies by debt anyway. In other words they were treated in a very similar structural manner, with the difference being they were considered 'disposable'.
What happens when you are half black and half white like myself? Should I hate the white half because in these sensationalists' eyes I'm an ancestor of the MAN thus I must take blame? If you believe in that nonsense about you needed to pay reparations or take blame for what some white guys did over a century ago you need a reality check. In fact, you need to check yourself into a mental hospital as you don't have a grasp on reality.

I don't owe anyone anything in this life nor should anyone else. That whole nonsense about sins committed and how blame should be passed on for all time is a load of bull.
As we can see in "Shaun of the dead" movie by E.Wright / S. Pegg there isn't much difference between a zombie and a brainless man, that could be the point. In any case being "zombiefied" could be seen as an insult especially if only one ethnic community is involved but, sure, that's a little cheap. No one sees the good ol' Chris Redfield as a contemporary incarnation of the ancient colonialistic spirit. But it seems this point of view isn't the only one possible.

The only thing that disturbes me a little is the setting of this last episode of the saga: subsaharian Africa, actually one of the bloodies and darkests spots in recent history.

Talking about RE4, yes they were white men, but they were also ispanic people shown in some feudal pre-WWI landscape that's really far from actual Spain. But you know, it's just a game and also a great one.

I'll love any of the REs by CAPCOM but, considering that today the VG is mediatically overexposed i'll be a little more careful as a producer and/or designer. There's plenty of people out there willing to brawl ethically and politically on VGs. It's always wiser not to get involved with 'em.

greetings, M from Milan, Italy
(& i hope my english is understandable)
Since when are M rated games marketed towards children and young adults?
Why is it automatically "racist" when anyone other than white people are depicted? Honestly these fucking people need a bullet. The world just doesn't need to put up with crap like this. If it's okay to shoot white zombies/people then why the fuck isn't it okay to shoot black zombies/people? If you ask me these stupid paranoid black people are ones who are racist. GTA SA is a prime example, nobody complained that you had a black character primarily killing white people, but if it was the other way around & you had a white character primarily killing black people then it would've automatically been deemed racist.

GET OVER IT.
My main complaint is that Black Looks is taking the situation completely out of context. I could understand being offended if the game featured a white colonialist massacring African villager to steal their land/enslave them. But the enemies are not being targeted because they are Black or African; it's because their zombies! This is the same as those idiots who complain about how racist it is to feature Black criminals in a story. The blog-writers should stop being shallow and just noticing skin color and not even considering the context.
Did you not see two of the black people eating out another black person? That shows that there somewhat of a zombie. In Resident Evil 4 there was a white guy gunning down Spaniards and in previous Resident Evil games there where white people and all types of people. They wanted to change it up a bit by setting the scenario in Africa, whats so wrong with that? Obviously if its Resident Evil game its gonna contain some type of virus/zombie effect on the people in it. So why would you look at it as racism? It is a guy trying to defend himself by a bunch of people whaling machetes and etc at him. I am not trying to say that I don't see where your coming from, yes black people had it way harder back then than anyone else and you guys should have a right to argue about it. I am not trying to start a fight or be racist here, I am Hispanic and I take a lot of crap from people that i meet over the internet because if you Hispanic all of the sudden your a wetback or border hopper as people say. Everyone has their right to speak there mind, I agree with that. This is game and just let it be game. As much as I hate to say it but racism will never end in this world but we gotta live with it as much as we hate it.
Ok...I'm not gonna talk about the racism since there is none. I'm black and the only thing I'm pissed about is why the hell is everyone assuming thats all black people think like this lady. Like the first comment. (Too many to read the rest, sorry) "Strange how black people are feeling offended by this, but no one made a big deal about RE4, which was the killing of “inhuman savages” as white people." No. Not all black people...so far this black lady...and even if Al Sharpton disliked this game and thought it was racist....Thats just him. If you wanna know how black people feel about it...ask them.
Black this, White that... Blah, Blah, Blah.

They are Zombies! RE1-4 had white zombies. This one has black zombies. Does it matter? No! They are zombies! Zombies are not people and they should be put down regardless of the race they happened to be in life. What does this person want? The game is set in Africa. I think it would be pretty stupid to have an all white cast (zombies included) in an area that is known to be the location for one race. What's next? French zombies in Tokyo? Russian zombies in Brazil? Japanese zombies in India?

In fact, if you look at it. Zombies are the ultimate in equality. They dont care about race or religion. They don't care what country you are from. They are equal opertunity eaters and are all equaly (un)dead.

So what if they are African zombies? The race card is the only card too eager to be played in any given situation. A zombie is a zombie and there is only one way to deal with it. Kill it for good. Hell, it is a Resident Evil game, so the chances are that you are going to have to end up trying to save some local anyway. Zombies are never about race. Zombies are a story of humantiy. Watch any of Romero's zombie films and you will see that point being abundently clear.
Okay I have a few issues with this. Yes there is a history of colonialims in africa, which is still raw in many places, but would it really be better if it was a black man killing the african villagers? That raises its own set of nastiness considering events like the genocied in Rwanda, the genocied in Darfur and the various civil wars that have occured as African antions try to gain some sense of themselves and prosper.

My big problem here is we have no idea how the game will play out. What if you're working along side African soldiers or civilians to stem the tide of the zombies? What if they transform like the parasites in RE4? there are alot of questions unanswered to be making judgements this early.

From my perspective this reveals more about the writer than the game itself. The people have been changed into zombies, they now lack free will or thought beyon eating brains, like any good zombie. None of that makes them "savages", their reanimated humans for god sakes.

The comments on the blog are interesting though, almost all of them seem to come down against the writer. It irritates me when rants like this come about because it takes away from real issues and real racists. Really if someone buys this game thinking "oh good I get to kill black people" than that is a far bigger issue than the game itself.
@Hitler's Heir:

You really need to get better at trolling ;)

We had a proper neonazi visit before, and he wrote lengthy and pretentious posts where here pretended to be smarter than he actually was. He actually seemed to enjoy a proper flamewar... it was fun.
Why is that there are so many double-standard morons in society today? RE4 took place in Spain and nobody complained.

Also, how is this game marketing towarded children? I suggest you do more research before you spew such trash. Any adult who allows their five-year old son to purchase an M rated game is a complete fool. It's sad that the adult later cries foul to the media when they see their son playing a gorey game that was intended for adults.

RE is intended an M rated game. 17 and up. Please, stop believing that every videogame out there is targeted for children.
"Erik do you really think all the bad effects of slavery are in the past?"


No, but I know I didn't cause them.

I also know that racism of blacks against whites isn't any more tolerable than the other direction around. "From this point forward ALL zombies should be white" indeed.
In my opinion, perhaps we and the blogger of this article should consider the background of the developer of RE5 as well. For one Capcom is a Japanese company. Culturally, racism and the civil rights are not as significant in that country as it is in America or Africa for that matter (though Japan still has racism issues, but that's a different topic on its own). Take for example the whole outcry the international community had for the Little Black Sambo children's comic. The Japanese thought it was cute and innocent but the depiction of the character could be considered racist. Hence it's not entirely out of the question to presume that the developers didn't intend to offend any particular group when creating this game.

From the looks of the trailer, there are other African stereotypes being protrayed that perhaps should raise questions for the anyone concerned with the image being depicted about Africa itself (eg. the Militia leader in one of those scenes, civil war, poverty, etc). These images are all over the news and are nothing out of the norm for those in the wider media who cover international news. Personally, I thought the author could delve deeper into the social issues depicted in the trailer rather than wittling the topic to the colonial racism (which has probably been covered to redundancy).
First off, i doubt it is marketed to children.

And why was this not a problem when it was white people getting zombi-fied?
Oh, the anticipation… I’m feeling the obligation to slaughter Negroes. It’s time for another massacre!
@Dan:

The effects might still be there -- I'm a Canadian living in Vancouver, so I don't even see black people often enough to draw conclusions -- but those responsible are not. I'm certainly not going to feel guilty purely because my skin happens to be as pale as that of the perpetrators. If I did, I'd be almost obligated to feel overwhelming pride for all the good things whites have done... and while I strongly support any person's right to feel pride in his or her race, it CAN get out of hand.
It seems PSnazis can not understand correlation/causation, so what they see is a bunch of black folk begin shot by non black lead and BAM it must be racisim,this is what people like Al sharpton do to screw the image in their favor, when in truth most of the time its more correlation where 1+1 dose not equal 2 because of truth and the facts.
Someones manging to see problems where they don't exist.

I watched the trailer a few days ago and was just very impressed by the detail and lighting. Can't say I saw noticed racism.

If you notice racism in a title like this, the irony is that you may be somewhat racist yourself.
It seems whenever a black man is depicted in video games they take flak.

1. Black man who speaks ebonics: racist.
2. Black man shooting whites: feeding on white fears of black crime!
3. Black man shooting blacks: promoting black on black crime!
4. Black man shot by white man: promoting racial cleansing!
5. No black man in game: exclusion.
6. Black man as an educated, proper English speaking character: token.

WTF, I give up, no more blacks in video games. Let's just make all game characters purple and call it a day.
Black Looks is just another racist website run by racist, self-righteous authors. Anyone who agrees with their opinion on RE5, as well as everything else they write about, is also a racist.
"umm, actually on second thought, have there ever been any “Black” S.T.A.R.S. agents?

hmmmm"

I think there was one or two black members. Not sure. I can only remember 4 STAR members. Jill, Chris, Wesker, and Barry. All the other ones died pretty quickly in RE0, 1, 2, and 3. Many times their death scenes were also their introduction into the series.

"Jill, I've come to you with important new-OH SNAP ZOMBIES AND/OR A GIANT MUTANT MONSTER! WHO WOULD'VE SEEN THIS COMING?"

Then you learn the characters name when Jill goes "Allen! NOOO!!!!"

But who didn't see the trailer and think "Yeah... Capcom is going to get crap for this".
Race issues will NEVER end as long as people exist that bring up race issues.

How long before the "Reverends" Al and Jesse pick this up?
someone please check whether this site is worth noticing in the first place, please?
Intentional or not, the imagery in those trailers is pretty blatant nd in-your-face. It's understandable if someone gets upset over it.

But then again, RE5 is not scheduled for release until sometime in 2009. There will be plenty of time for tweaks, tinkering, and possibly some revised racial variety in the antagonists.
Race IS and issue and always will be... its impossible to deny and I can see this from both sides [because I'm "colorblind" :P ]

Its a tough one to call with nothing but a short trailer and a few screenshots to go by.

:(


Can't we all just get along and shoot zombies in the head?



...perhaps a zombie rainbow coalition is on order ?
One more (brief) note: the game will most likely NOT be marketed to children and young adults. And I doubt very seriously that the intent of RE5 is to train kids to hate blacks.
umm, actually on second thought, have there ever been any "Black" S.T.A.R.S. agents?


hmmmm
@The Central Scrutinizer -- aka: Wolfeman
Oh I know, I suppose it didn't come off well in the bleakness of text. Got into a debate about the fact there are indeed white people of African decent (and black people of non-African decent), a touch of sarcasm that did not come out well apparently, and I apologize.
The Central Scrutinizer -- aka: Wolfeman: "umm, actually on second thought, have there ever been any “Black” S.T.A.R.S. agents?"

LOL I remember in Resident Evil 2 where was a black cop that looked a lot like Will Smith. But no there have been no S.T.A.R.S members. Well none that I konw of.

Its really sad but I knew this was going to happen... I knew someone was going to cry about this.
agree that there is some uneasiness...

1st... in Capcom's defense, no one has seen the whole game... maybe in the story, the main character is trying to save the African Village or something like that... maybe there are some black africans portrayed in a more positive way.... maybe other levels take place in different locations with enemies that look different... maybe somehow the game sheds some light on the poverty level Africans face... no one knows what's in the whole game yet

another point to consider is that Resident Evil is about feeling helpless and afraid, and feeling as though you're being hunted by the enemies... so, you could look at from the perspective of playing as a white person being persecuted by the Africans in a setting where you're the minority and not really getting any fair treatment.... so it could be like a little juxtaposition if they were able to communicate this (i'm a little biased because i'm a resident evil fan)

if it turns out that the game is mostly the white guy blowing up the black "zombies" in Africa... then i would agree that it's in bad taste and racially insensitive.... maybe if Capcom changed the main character to be (and look) black and maybe made him to be from Africa himself in the story, that would help...

But, I think we should wait to see what's in the game before passing judgement... they've never had anything racially insensitive in their games before

ps
don't see how it's being marketed to children more than any other age demographic (they also haven't really done too much marketing yet)
OMFG, I can't believe nobody has pointed this out. The type of thinking that says "including Africans as enemies in a game is racist" is racist in itself. It essentially underlines that there is a difference between people of African-American descent (and to be unpolitically correct, I'm going to correct this by saying BLACK people, because nobody ever considers the numerous white people who are African, especially people from South Africa) deserve special treatment because of the color of their skin. From this statement, people may say that I am a racist, but I am not.

When I say that black people (yes, I went there) should not be treated specially, I am just saying that they should be treated in the same way as people of other skin colors. To transcend the deep-seated prejudices that encircle our society today, we must learn to treat people EQUALLY, not complain about every small perceived slight against the race.

As others before me have stated, people made no comment of racism or prejudice against Resident Evil 4, which featured white protagonist Leon Kennedy killing hordes of infected, WHITE Spanish villagers. Why, then, is there the immediate assumption that there is racism when the villagers are black? Is it unreasonable that a game set in possibly Africa or Haiti to feature black people? Or should our games forever be bleached to avoid the possibility of wild accusations of racism. People, racism IS still a problem in society today, but we must learn to be reasonable and not try to find it in every little thing. We will never tackle the large issue of racism in society while we keep picking at the little threads.
Some of you are making stupid comparisons between white and black people, and saying that it shouldn't be any different. The reason they're offended is because those same black village people have been under tyranny from the British military in the past. There IS a valid complaint here, however...

This is not a logical way to achieve equality. Asking that only white people be zombies in videogames is going to maintain and procure the sensitivities and disillusionments between people of different skin tone. Equality is not something you can force, or demand. It is something you develop through tolerance of ideas, and eventual change in those ideas. Intolerance, even towards possible hints at racism, will not eliminate racism, and instead invites it. This is true of all intolerance.
Wow, I'm black and hadn't even thought about it..x.x Agreed, over sensitive..0_0 They're zombies, forget skin color..Zombies must be eliminated!
@Minshi, there are hundreds of thousands of white Africans that would take exception with your statement of no white folks in Africa...

@GP readers/posters

Sometimes Zombies REALLY need to die... no matter where they are hanging out or what color they happen to be... however, I think that the purpose of a game, any game, is to allow for imaginative fun and if people in great number are offended, then the game had missed its goal. [imho]

I also had a negative "gut reaction" to the screenshots I saw of RE5 from a few weeks ago and I see now that my gut is always right! [thank you Stephen Colbert]

That being said, a game trailer can never be considered the complete insight into the plot of a game and it might be nice to give the developers the benefit of the doubt since they do not have a track record for racist overtones.
@Ten Wolves

Yeah I noticed that too. Which makes the claims of conspiracy all the more absurd.
This is absolutely ridiculuous. It is racist if they don't put black people in a game and it is racist of they do. Saying its purpose is to teach kids to hate and even kill black people?! That is pure idiocy! I didn't hear anyone saying RE4 was training kids to kill spaniards! What about RE1-3 training kids to kill white people? Absurd and insulting on so many levels.
well... she does make a good point tho... we should start them young :)
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 Europian.

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. Of course, as any one knows, a white person from Africa is not African.

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.

I have no idea what else to say, except, those who complain, complain and then say what would be a better solution. (Unless your trying to take a single incident to go against all M and potentially M rated games.)
I think the biggest problem here is that it's not very noticeble to the untrained eye that the black folks in that game are zombies/Las Plagas infected.

In RE4, there were subtle hints that gave the player the idea that the villagers you fight are inhuman and sort of zombie like and creepy.

In RE5, it doesn't give that impression. It says "Black dudes vs white guy" instead of "Zombies vs a guy." I think all Capcom needs to do is make the zombies a bit more obvious, because to anyone who NEVER played RE before, it looks more like a white guy gunning down hordes of Africans.
Where was this bitching when in the prior Resident Evil games when you were killing zombified white people or zombie Spaniards? Sorry, but equality means taking the bad with the good.
"This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of White people as inhuman savages, the killing of White people by a 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 White people."

See how ridiculous it sounds when you switch black with white? I actually think it sounds ridiculous either way, but eh.

If people want race to stop being such a big issue, they need to stop making it such a huge issue.
To be fair, the Ganados in RE4 are more obvious in terms of "zombie-like appearances" There were subtle hints that gave the player the impression that the villagers in the game are possesed.

In here, it's not very obvious. They DON'T look like Zombies or Las Plagas infected humans. To the untrained eye or those who never played RE, it looks like a white guy gunning down hordes of Africans. That's the main issue here. You need to take a VERY good look to realise those Africans are infected with T-Virus/Las Plages etc.

I think all Capcom needs to do is tweak the models and skins to make it more obvious, that they're fighting zombies. That change is all is needed.
Well it also seems a bit wrong about the "marketed towards children and young adults" part but that's just me. It seems that people are just too sensitive these days. According to some speculation on forums that I've read, they think the game takes place in Haiti. Since the religion there seems to do with voodoo, it seems natural that they would have zombies of some sort since they believe in it.
Also I forgot to add: They aren't "supposed to be zombies" they fucking ARE zombies. The only person making them out to be "savages" is the blog writer herself, and for that she should be ashamed.
Strange how black people are feeling offended by this, but no one made a big deal about RE4, which was the killing of "inhuman savages" as white people.
@NHL
"Well it also seems a bit wrong about the “marketed towards children and young adults” part but that’s just me."

It is wrong because the game is marketed to young adults and adults, not children. And this is clearly a case of the creators looking to use a continent they haven't used yet, not some conspiracy by the white man to keep the black man down.
In case this fact gets overlooked... Capcom is a Japanese Company and This Game Was Made by Japanese People in Japan.
..Hooray for hyper-sensitivity and paranoia. Yup, them big video game corporations are all giant racists that are just out to put the black man down.

As much as I would love to go into a tirade on the subject of white/black racism and hatred, fact of the matter is that you don't get to blame everyone else for your problems. You have to stand on your own two legs and get past the juvenile idea that the big bad government men are out to keep you down through video games.

Seriously, nation, I thought we had finally gotten rid of the stereotypical angsty African American who still thinks like this.
Erik do you really think all the bad effects of slavery are in the past?

I weep for the American education system.

If I were you, I would sue. You obviously got a bargain basement education.
in RE5 the Las Plagas dont look so 'Zombiish', maybe Capcom should work on that.
However I saw this coming, miles apart.
"Pick up a book by Tim Wise. Read some books about slavery. Do something other than work off of your narrow minded ignorant viewpoint."


Or we can remember that no one alive is old enough to been a slave/owned a slave, call our ancestors fucking idiots and be done with the matter.
Disclaimer: I'm pasty white, blue-eyed, and not particularly guilty about the sins of my distant ancestors.

Since the vast majority of zombie games/movies are set in a white suburban setting with MAYBE a token black guy or two, this game looks refreshingly different. Sure, it MIGHT be a bit racist, but judging by the trailer, the only reason the black guys are getting shot is because they're... well... zombies. If it was a black guy shooting white zombies, I'd be like "hey, cool, he's shooting zombies," same with any other racial pairing.

On the zomg-gamers-are-racists issue, I'm actually a bit disappointed that our friends at Stormfront haven't been around. I liked the last guy who trolled here... I think he used a nickname associated with the SS, but I'm too lazy to go searching through the archives. He was fun to argue with, but then he got banned :(
Sieg Heil!
Denial, Evasion Won't Solve Racism:

By Tim Wise

Published in the Lexington Herald-Leader, November 10, 2003

Although I'm not psychic, I know what many readers are thinking right now. "Oh no, here we go again, someone else complaining about racism. Why do we have to talk about this? Isn't it time we moved on?" Well, no actually.

No matter how uncomfortable the topic, especially for those who are white like me, talking about racism and then actually doing something about it are the only ways to make the subject go away. It won't disappear just because we choose not to mention it. Indeed, the problem is not talking about racism but racism itself: a stain on our national psyche that has yet to be wiped clean, no matter that its most blatant manifestations -- slavery, Indian removal, Asian exclusion and segregation -- are many years past.

Contrary to popular belief, race is not merely a card played by those who wish to stir up resentment. Instead it is a real and persistent determiner of who has what and why in this country. To extend the metaphor of the card game, race too often determines who the dealer is, and who's getting dealt.

Past racism continues to have an effect in the present. Since whites were able to own property, procure loans, hold jobs and attend schools all of which were off-limits to people of color, the wealth accumulated by those previously privileged whites, elevated by law above all non-whites, has been passed down. Today, the typical white family has twelve times the net worth of the typical black family. In large measure this is due to the head start whites have been afforded in the race to accumulate assets.

The problem is not just the residue of the past, however. For people of color, there are many reminders that even in 2003 they are often viewed as second-class citizens. Consider the recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago and MIT, which found that job-seekers with "white-sounding names" were 50 percent more likely to be called back for an interview than those with "black-sounding names" even when their qualifications were identical.

Consider that blacks, Latinos and Asian Pacific Americans with the same education and experience as whites, will earn, on average, between 10-30 percent less, and that blacks with a college degree are more likely to be unemployed than whites who dropped out of high school. So much for "reverse discrimination."

Consider the data from the Department of Justice, indicating that blacks are twice as likely as whites to have their cars pulled over and searched for drugs, even though whites, when searched, are twice as likely to have drugs on us. Or consider that although blacks and Latinos combined are only 23 percent of drug users, they are 90 percent of persons incarcerated annually for a drug offense. Whites, on the other hand, are 72 percent of drug users, but less than ten percent of those incarcerated for drugs.

Consider the studies on housing, which indicate that at least 2 million cases of discrimination occur annually against people of color looking to rent or purchase a home. Even when credit history, income and collateral are the same, whites are 56 percent more likely to secure a mortgage than their equally qualified black and brown counterparts according to the Boston Federal Reserve Bank.

Or consider our racially selective response to terrorism. Since 9/11 most Americans seem to support racially-profiling anyone who looks Arab, but they applied no such profile to white men after Oklahoma City. What's more, I dare say that if 19 members of the Irish Republican Army had hijacked those planes, or if 19 white supremacists had done so, we would not be rounding up white men, or applying a generalized suspicion to them in airports across the country, as we are with Arab and Muslim males presently.

Again, I know some are tired of hearing about these things. But however tired they must be of hearing it, people of color are a lot more tired of living it; and until whites join with our black and brown brothers and sisters to put an end to the kind of racial inequity described above, we'll continue to be confronted with the uneasy conversations, as well we should be. And so long as this kind of inequity is allowed to stand, the promise of America will remain unfulfilled and hollow.
Wow Kit, how do you see your keyboard to type with your head so far up your ass?

Blacks were brought here against their will. Enslaved by white men. Brought to a foreign country to do work with no pay for white men. Fortunes were made on the backs of these slaves. Women were raped by slave masters.

I can go on and on and on about the history of slavery in America and how it's effects still persist today.

But I'd rather you go and do some research for yourself. If you want to be angry about something, be angry about your own ignorance.

Pick up a book by Tim Wise. Read some books about slavery. Do something other than work off of your narrow minded ignorant viewpoint.
On august 1, Denis posted about a stupid black women who complianed about the trailer for Resident Evil 5, and unlesahed a monster he could not control. Now we have over 700 posts steaming with redundancy, flame wars and stupidy from both blacks and whites.

And it's still growing.

Now as the forum reaches critical mass, it threatens to crash the site (well not really) and plunge Gp forever into a realm of whiny morons who fight and bicker over nothing, unless Dennis can somehow kill the monster he created and save gamepolitics from the plunge of idiocy.

To make a long story short,

this thread is getting nowhere fast (very fast), so why is it still here?
This is silly. The game isn't racist, but the people bringing up the issue may be, just a bit. Not in a hateful way, but in an overprotective way that pushes other groups aside in "defense" of Blacks.

Chris Tucker, in Rush Hour 2 said, "Follow the rich white man". Meaning that in a lot of cases, evil schemes have a rich white man somewhere in the top tiers of the scheme. If we really wanna be mad, let's be mad that only rich white men can run an evil scheme.

Or we can chill out.

The other thing is that when you look at horror games, they've taken place just about everywhere but the Middle East and Africa. Yes, that includes the polar ice caps as well. Maybe, just maybe, Capcom wanted to be original.

What bothers me is that for some reason, we think that EVERYONE can be made fun of or shot at but Blacks. Yes, they were enslaved, yes, they have economic problems...

...but that doesn't mean other ethnic groups don't have the same problems. Asians got mistreated heavily in the US in its early years. North Korea is mistreating the crap out of its citizens...but if a game has me on the ground in North Korea, killing fellow Asians, I'm not gonna write an angry letter. Why? Because it's fiction, entertainment, and because it's just a game.

I want to know why it's ONLY Blacks that get to be defended and offended about race in a videogame. Racial equality won't ever be achieved if we're all to damn afraid to have a good time at someone's expense.

God, this pisses me off.
We white people have the luxury of looking at things from a non-racial perspective because we are the dominant race in a society built by and for us.
People of color are well aware that the slurs used against them and imagery that depicts them in a negative fashion, particularly when verbalized or displayed by whites, are often the tip of a much larger and more destructive iceberg, beneath which tip lies an existing bias capable of shattering opportunities, of damaging and even destroying lives. Insisting that they develop a thick skin as a result is especially heartless.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, has to do with race nowadays, in the eyes of white people. But the obvious question is this: if we have never seen racism as a real problem, contemporary to the time in which the charges are being made, and if in all generations past we were obviously wrong to the point of mass delusion in thinking this way, what should lead us to conclude that now, at long last, we've become any more astute at discerning social reality than we were before? Why should we trust our own perceptions or instincts on the matter, when we have run up such an amazingly bad track record as observers of the world in which we live? In every era, black folks said they were the victims of racism and they were right. In every era, whites have said the problem was exaggerated, and we have been wrong.
[...] De nieuwste Resident Evil 5 heeft weer eens wat stof op doen waaien in gamesland. Het was natuurlijk wel te voorspellen dat iemand over de E3 trailer zou vallen. Deze trailer laat zien dat het nieuwste deel zich afspeelt in een dorpje in Afrika. In Afrika wonen voornamelijk donkere mensen, de zombies voldoen dan ook aan dit signalement. [...]
You have a problem with it? Boo-hoo. That is just too bad.

People like this are the real racists. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't and they are the ones calling each other niggers. They use it against the system to get ahead and then some of them, like this person, do it because they have mental issues. That is mainly what racism is about, the minorities making claims to get ahead in society without having to do work for it like the rest of us. There is real racism out there, but probably 98% of it is made up in the heads of people like this.
@Ariel

Chris Redfield is there because the US government decided it needed special forces of some sort to clean up after the mess Umbrella Corp. left. Chris by virtue of not getting kill previously by T-Virus monsters apparently got recruited. Since when you're facing possessed, zombified people and monsters, experience not getting killed by them really helps. As does having an operative that values the mission slightly more than his own life.

I presume he's special forces, and not supposed to be some secret and undercover agent. Making it his job to go someplace, do something, and leave. Blending in and not getting noticed doesn't really factor into to it.

He's used rather than some new character because Capcom really would rather build on existing characters than make new ones.
I'm with Ismail on this one, its just a matter of sensitivity - a matter of needing to better illustrate this is a group of zombies and not just some random Africans dude is mowing down.

Irony #1" You have no right to get offended at this, and neither do any black people."

Hilarious that someone is telling black people what they do and don't have a right to be upset about. That is *their right* to be upset - sorry but you can't dictate what upsets people which is often based on their life experiences. If you happen to be a white male this reeks of some white supremacist dogma that suggest you have a right to tell people how to feel. Now I agree there are some issues that get brought up about race - however its not your place to dictate other people's emotions (right or wrong)


Irony #2 Were you enslaved? Did any white man you know enslave you? When was the last slave freed?

This issue has less to do with the event of slavery as it does an an overall history Africa has with the rest of the world. Right now you have documented cases of slavery from all quarters of the developing world. The AIDS epidemic. We're talking less than 2 decades post apartheid and less than a century away from stringent colonialization in Africa - by a lot of western white interest. You have DARFUR/ SUDAN occuring as we speak...are you that insulated in video games and world events that you couldn't fathom there being some sensitivity on this issue?

What if there was a video game of a man in hezbollah gear - killing American zombies...would that upset you? Maybe, maybe not - but the point is when you have 2 symbolic figures interacting that can be misconstrued - its always best to err on the side of caution and make clear what that contextual relationship is. This could have been a male zombie slaughtering a bunch of nude female zombies in a strip club or something - and I'd think some people would find concern in that. In the end though its just about taking into account how sensitive material could be misconstrued- removing any implicit misleading affects I think is all Ismail or anyone else is suggesting, because honestly...I still want to play this on my wii.

"Have you seen the Blade movies? Focus on the first one. Tell me how many of the vampires he kills are white."

Dude are you serious? The part of the premise of the Blade character is that he is the product of a forced interracial liaison between a vampire and a black woman - consequently he hates Vampires period (and him being the only biracial one doesn't exactly help I imagine) you should take that up with Stan Lee (who happens to be white last time I checked).
@Mase

Being racist, as you are being, isn't really helping the issue much. If anything you are just adding more fuel to the fire.
To all the peoples of the world, i have been sent here by - allah, Jesus, buddha, the pagan gods of the arabs, the ancient gods of africa, the gods of the hindus and the Pharaohs, the gods of the Romans and the god of the isrealits - to calm things down. It has been decided that you all must proclaim me as your leader and that all the nations of the world must bring their women folk (18 and above and under 60) to me so that i may make love to them and produce mixed race babies and so that we can all be happy and play resident evil. I'm indian by the way and very perverted.
they are just retarded!!! do you exspect any white people to be living in a POS village in aids/hiv infested africa...HELL NO!!!! its not racist its realistic.who else would there be to shoot in a village/city in africa? the 14 yr olds with guns who are black or the dogs.. o wait there is no dogs the hiv people eat them!!! its not racist go try to sue some other company you racist colored person who wants more $$ than what walefare is giving her..
at least you admit it Ohma.

I think our discussion is overwith now.

Enjoy being a typical racist prick.

and why even mention Stormfront whatsoever? they are a pathetic group of people that don't deserve any type of publicity.
jesus christ, did you all not see the guy in the beginning changing into a zombie or whatever. people are always going to complain about something, just like how they complained about 300 about the guy's being white, and the persians being depicted as savages......i'm pretty sure that the spartans were not black or anything like that. but whatever....and its just a freaking trailer the game is not even out yet, so we dont know if they dont give us any hints of them being possessed or not yet. and i personally cannot wait to get this game, be it racist or not, which its not. we'll see how "racist" it is when it comes out and it sells.
I agree with ohma, it is true, I'm sorry to say(yes I am very racist and I'm proud of it)black's all bitch and gripe and moan and go on and on. just like katrina they are lucky they even got some help, should be happy but no they are'nt.

lets look at my race, white people, we don't complain all the damn time, we were zombies before in video games. did we make a big deal out of this? the answer is no we did not. I hate porch monkeys. RE5 will be amazing, to the stupid black lady that wrote this crap go and fuck yourself, ok.
"Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" - Avenue Q.

That's all I've got to say - a little humor goes a long way.
Oh snap ! I think I did see a Black man transform into a Watermelon in the start of the game ! THATS RACIST !
imeant to say i agree with chris not ohma
@ Grombar

Yeah, this post has been bowling-shoe ugly, the likes of which not seen since the Voldemort of Video Games was posting frequently when Dennis was still posting stories on LJ.

Maybe it's time for Dennis to lock or delete this post.

Looks to me like he's going to be IP-banning a few people for making racist comments, which is against GP policy.
CLOSE THE BLOG IT'S ALL OVER
@Chris

Mmm-hmm, uh-huh, yup, you don't say.
Oh what?
You say I'm not paying attention? Oh, sorry, I guess I didn't see the need since you were already off in your own universe where I've said ANYTHING other than:
1. I doubt that RE5 is racist, and that while I can see where the article writer is coming from, I think that their argument is at the least "silly".
2. That one metric fuckton of the other comments (including yours) here REEK of a poorly sublimated racist/mysoginist mindset. (ex. how many comments have some permutation of the phrase "that black bitch is a giant cunt!" ?)

Weird how *I'm* the racist despite never once saying anything approaching "whites are all pathetic racists".
First of all, I want to say that I know this is a completely Japanese game, and the Americans are not to blame. Also, I think that as game, RE4 was awesome (although I had some issues with it too) and RE5 seems even better.

Having said that, I believe there are a few wrong things with the trailer.

There is a scene where the town residents appear closer in camera, and look menacing, with bad and hostile attitude. Yeah, those two could be part of the “bad guys” "zombiefying" people with a virus, but that's not for sure, and even if that was the case, how on Earth, could anyone unfamiliar with the RE games discern that?

Also, BEFORE the "zombiefying" there seems to be some kind of lynching. It is unclear if the mob is supporting it, o protesting against it, but either way, it depicts a place without much of a law, hence, the idea of "inhuman savages”.

Anyway, my biggest problem is with the whole Chris Redfield thing. I mean, why is he there? I know, he's been a protagonist of the series, but anyway, I don’t see why is he there. In the US, it was only natural for him to be there, but why is he in Africa?

If they have to send an American guy, instead of the African (I will use “african” in generic form because we don’t know what African country this is) police or military, is most probably because it is a secret assignment. None can know about it. Not even the American or African population or even governments know what is he doing there, and that’s the reason why the Africans didn’t send their own police.

Yeah, secret and undercover, my ass. It seems he’s TRYING TO BE NOTICED. Just look at the trendy clothes and shoes he’s wearing (did I also mention that he seems to be the only white guy around?). Look at the “badge” in his shoulder, look at his gear. The guy not only looks completely different from anyone else we've seen in the trailer so far, he also looks “COOL”, and even ARROGANT. He’s not coming from a poor country and he doesn’t need to hide that fact.

Either way: he’s the most stupid undercover agent in history and the population is also extremely stupid not to realize that, or he’s not undercover at all, and he has permission to go around with this uniform and gear in a foreing country.

But if that was the case, the operation is not secret, or is it? And if isn’t secret, why would they need a foreign police, military or whatever he is? Aren’t there any Africans up to the task? Well, it seems not, or maybe Capcom thinks most Americans (the primary market for the game) wouldn’t feel that much identified with the character, and that thought also seems completely absurd to me, and it risks appearing as racist.

Go figure.

Anyway, once we have the whole facts about the game, will be able to judge it, but I can perfectly understand why some people would be upset.
I am a gamer. You people should be too.
This is beyond retarded.
I am so sick of gamers like us making each other look stupid!
Stop being ignorant, and play games, not get involved in stupid arguments about race, that's for everyone else to bitch about.
Let's stop posting on this topic, and just shut the fuck up and play games. Not make them pointless with stupid going-in-circle debates.
Im black I feel they LOL sike nah game rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!
People need to listen to what zombie games and movies have been telling us for so many years - that once someone has turned into a zombie, they're no longer the person they were. It doesn't matter what colour their skin is; or whether they used to be your mother. Still gotta do what you gotta do.
The culture part's been said before, and refreshed by EOTD, but:

The problem with all the arguments that this is just one more setting for the RE series is that they're not taking the image of videogames and the videogame community into account, and they're not considering the inadvertent insensitivity to cultural issues and identity of a culture that hasn't much dealt with these things. Obviously my experiences in Japan and in studying its culture and history are not definitive, but certain trends and generalizations can be presented as examples.

In the end, it doesn't matter that we the gamers understand (or believe, however you look at it) this isn't meant to further racist stereotypes, but only a storyline that has gone through myriad zombies of predominantly paler racial origins. The non-gamers are the ones who target videogames as culturally denigrating and lacking merit, and this will become just one more huge ball of fodder as it stands. Do we really want to give the uncultured one more reason to attack videogames as a bane of society?

That said, I'll say it again: Japan has a very, very, very racist culture. Not so much intentionally in regards to blacks, as American culture once was (and still is to disturbing extents), but due to homogeny and homogeneity. In other words, because there is basically only one race in Japan, and it has always been thus historically, and wars with outside nations entrenched a superiority complex over other races, Japan and other similarly non-diverse nations tend to view everyone else as inferior; and Japan in particular teaches its superiority as a race and a nation.

Unfortunately, Japan in particular also generally considers blacks sub-human (in huge part because of American television and movie depictions). I say "unfortunately" because, as others have already noted, in all their cultural products--such as videogames--there is in general some level of racism whenever blacks are depicted; often severe, and not necessarily as innocent as some of us may think but certainly in ignorance of sensitivity to such issues.

Japanese culture, experienced up close, is too often snide and derogatory toward blacks, and tends to consider them similarly to the animals slave-owners deemed them, as less than all other races. It is far too likely this newest product does in fact portray the Africans (even when not zombified) in a negative (stereotypical) light, however unintentionally or unknowingly, and the anti-gamers will jump on that like a feeding frenzy.

The racism in games is only one evidence of this cultural understanding deficit common in Japan and other such insular regions (including backwoods and other areas in the U.S.), but it is a huge problem. If you've ever seen what happens when people of different origins who aren't pale and blond hit Japan, you'll understand. The people in Japan are very kind, well-meaning, and generous toward strangers, no matter color, and many of them are educated or simply generous enough not to believe the hype that blacks are less than other people.

But the culture as a whole is full of racist pretentions and predispositions; there is a hierarchy of race at which their own culture is on top but the blond-haired-blue-eyed hero stereotype is somewhat revered, striven toward; and blacks are basically at the bottom, below even Koreans who are frequently hated as (literally) smaller-brained enemies. Some individuals see past this or are willing to suspend the learned racial categorizing, but many simply believe those to be truth even though they won't flaunt that belief (too concerned with social harmony to openly disrupt it) and instead speak of it under their breath.

But even those who do see past the racial stereotypes run into the same problems all people face: we don't understand people who aren't like us, so we may consider media or other people's experiences as the definitive source for portraying these unknowns. And Japanese culture can seriously buy into the Aryan (blue-eyed, blond-haired or even red-haired, but always white) superiority subtly and blatantly portrayed in (particularly American) media.

No matter how much we as gamers see the ridiculousness of claims this is a racist product, if there are no cultural experts working with the Japanese company making this game, there will most likely be ample ammunition for the videogame critics in this game's innocently-stereotypical depictions of blacks.
if u drop a Watermelon will they stop chasin you?
Well, The fun part is, imagine how hard they'l be to see at night! Like African Ninjas!
This woman has every right to say the things she said.

Even as a Capcom/RE fan, it's impossible to overlook the obviously racist overtones present in the trailer, intentional or not. It doesn't matter that the game will most likely clarify the objectives present with a story involving zombies/Las Plagas/whatever, but the fact remains that anyone capable of simple deduction can see some seriously wrong things happening here.

Someone unfamiliar with the series (most likely the blogger in question) will only know this game by its trailer for the time being. And its trailer depicts a handsome white dude punching and shooting black people who barely resemble anything inhuman.

Shame on all of you who intend to throw this back at her by reversing the race card. It's a dirty tactic, and one you assuredly wouldn't be using had the retort been face to face.

Capcom should know better than this.
Two comments.

1. The African woman's blog should be treated just like any other comments made about video games from people that don't know anything about them, disregard them. I liken her comments to those that claim that video games cause kids to shoot up schools; misguided and misplaced. No part of this woman's blog has any merit.

2. It's funny how topics about race, regardless of the forum or topic, always amount to a bunch of name calling. Making blanket statements ("all black people", "these people") don't get you anywhere. And if you need to insert the word "I'm not racist" into your comments you need to reevaluate your thought process. Race is a myth, and the sooner that we stop evaluating each other by these "standards" the better off we will be. There is only one kind of race and seems by some the comments here that some of you are stuck in last place.
So do these zombies have AIDS?
@Chris

Yes dear, I'm sure, you can run along and play with your Freeper/Stormfront friends now.
"I am white.

I am proud.
But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

Now watch, I’ll be a racist for posting this "

Yep, pretty much. Or at least you certainly sound like one.
Way too many comments to read through but....

RE4 was set in a "Spanish" location with a bunch of Hispanic zombies yelling Spanish while trying to kill Leon the White Guy.

Did you see an uproar from the Hispanic community about this? No. Just some food for thought.

It is a setting for a game... shall we give Chris a deep tan and a Hawaiian shirt? Will that mellow this out a bit more?
@Ohma

funny how the second it's all of a sudden black people being the target, they all get all pussyhurt and start whining.

Ironic how in GTA:SA it was a black guy killing white people but you didn't see some uprising.

Of course it's racist black people.

It's an old and tired complaint, and they need to get the fuck over it.

P.S. I've been with my girlfriend for awhile now, so thanks for the concern - I'm doing quite fine actually.
Not racist:
BET
Black Caucus
United Negro College Fund

Racist:
Spike (It has some connection to Spike Lee for some people, which means it's makeing fun of blacks. Therefore, racist.)
White Caucus
Any fund that would be whites only.

Welcome to the world of double standards. This whole mess about RE5 is thanks to the PC aholes on capital hill.
Racism brings out the worst in everybody. There's nothing good about it.

The game isn't racist, this lady pulled things completely out of context, and her argument was ill-informed and oversensitive.

The gaming community's response, as a whole, has been vile.

Damn, it's been ugly here today.
@EOTD
Sensationalism sells, but in this case I think our side is sending the wrong sensationalist message. The sheer number of posts bespeaks to some serious underlying hatred, not toward blacks so much as censorship. I think after the Manhunt 2 ban people are on edge and this bitch lit the match.

@Everyone Else
As of right now, Black Looks no longer comes up. I think you guys finally sent her to bandwidth hell*.

*See earlier post
@EOTD: Blackface imagery is fairly common in Japan. They absorbed it from the US back in the 20s or so and didn't have public outcry to kill it, so it's still around to a large degree.

Actually, I think it would be fair to say Japan is a highly racist society, but as they are more or less racially homogenous, it does little internal harm.

And I strongly agree with the people who think some poster's reactionary attitudes are problematic. The original author didn't do her homework and went way overboard in making her point, but that doesn't mean her concerns should be dismissed as they were still based on something real: the trailer. Basically, she had problems that went beyond the misconceptions. Some posters seem to completely dismiss her point of view as well as the whole idea of racism and a few think tossing around racial slurs is somehow beneficial to this discussion.
you are living proof Ohma. You have selective hearing/reading to twist words.

And it's pathetic.

Thanks for ruining the black people's image even moreso.
@aaa

And there's another N-word instance for Dennis to have to delete. *sigh*

I think we need a mood-lightener, and this one is actually pretty topical.

http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?cid=74

Racist pigs, indeed. :)
White people are racist no matter what they do because black people are fucking pathetic. I'm racist no matter what I say about black people because I'm white, but blacks can say whatever the fuck they want and it's not racist and somehow 'justified'.

Find something else to bitch about you idiots, this has grown old a long time ago.
I second everything Ace of Sevens just said.
Her comments are now open! Go post a comment an pray that she doesn't delete it. http://askthisblackwoman.com/2007/08/01/more-on-resident-evil-5.aspx
as will I
@Chris

Yup, must be those damn racist blacks. Not your own latent racial bias showing through when you dismiss an entire ethnic group as "pathetic" at *all*.

Fucking-A, I suppose you wonder why women never give you their number when you use the line "are you an angel, or do you just have a great ass?" too?
You know, I'm betting that William Anderson post is a joke. A quick wikipedia search adds credence to the theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Anderson
I heard about this issue, and I gave it some thought this morning. Why is the Resident Evil series accused of being racist now? In my opinion, this is a joke for publicity. The first four Resident Evils pit a gunman against white zombies, but now that he's fighting black zombies, it's racist!? The plot takes place in Africa, so there's not much else to be done. While in America, caucasian zombies are fought. In Latin America, hispanic zombies are fought, etc. Why should Africa get the benefit when the story takes place amongst its natives? If you take this complaint seriously, than Resident Evil 4 must be racist as well! "No fair, he's killing white people. That makes caucasians look inhuman and evil..."
[...] Fairly tame discussion going on at Game politics [...]
this totally lame saying its racist my a$sssS . This is zombie game. resident evil 4 has zombies talking in spanish no one said it was racist. Blacks takes stuff more serious. like white people can't say black, nigger? black people acting if they were white instead? This is still a zombie game, couldn't you people tell the difference. in trailer dude in black skin had his eyes turn yellow red color. tell you all something happened by t- virus or etc virus has has gone into his body making him into zombie wanting to eat people. zombies have to die because they are undead or not human anymore. was it easy for Micheal jackson turn white easily? what if character has african friend helping chris, that friendship. there was friend hispanic friend helping chris in resident evil 4. one more why people not living Africa anymore because of aids epidemic not related to the game at all. why aren't african amerians at least trying to vacation to Africa someday to get back to there family roots or traditions. this game is horror game for adults who can handle killing giant spiders, freaking scary monster, giant grasshoppers. a giant killer fish. good bye
Wasnt part of Ghost Recon 2 set in Ethopia?!? I know one game certainly was, maybe it was a SOCOM game. Nevertheless same scenerio. Where was the outrage then? Go defend that scum Vick, lay off the video games for once.
@ Zigs

You know, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that any of the people spouting racist trash on here are actually racist. Chances are they're just idiots looking to rile up as many people as they can - just like Platt.
It may interest you all to know that this isn't the first incident like this to have happened: I just remembered another that happened a while ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokemon#Racism

Another incidence of "unintentional racism" (as some would call it) by the Japanese, the Pokémon Jynx's original design, meant to parody a weird fashion trend in Japan at the time, was taken by some reactionaries to instead represent a person in blackface. Without bothering to look into what the Pokémon was actually based on, they screamed until Game Freak, the game's creators, were forced to change the Pokémon's color scheme. In addition, the Pokémon did not appear in the related anime for a long time afterward, and episodes showing the original-colored Jynx are no longer shown. all because someone overreacted and cried "RACIST!".

Let's face it, the Japanese often don't recognize things that extreme black activists might take offense to, because they don't live in a country where said activists scream their heads off every time there's a slight controversy involving a person of African descent. And I think that's a good thing: their view is much less influenced by race as ours is, and I wish our perspective was more like theirs.
Better yet... here - here's the one you ought to look at.

link
@ GP - check out William Anderson's post

He's a Klan member, practically. Not the N-word... but close. Just find him, I'm sure you'll want to delete him.
if this woman is concerned about the killing of blacks, why isn't she on a soapbox about blacks slaughtering each other in many african nations? or, is she only concerned with whites killing blacks?(even if it is only a video game). this smells of sensationalism and reverse racism towards whites since she never complained about whites killing whites in RE4.
I'm sorry to see some GP posters hurling the N-word. Those are deleted as I find them...
Wow!

Well, Eric Greene has nothing to complain about now. His article looks barely touched in comparison.

And now we know what issue will get even the lurking gamers out into the sunlight to make comments.

Wow! Over 400 comments in one day. And, so far, not even 1 by you-know-who.

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
I WOULDN'T FEEL OFFENDED IF IT WAS ATTACKING ZOMBIES IN CANADA WHERE I LIVE!!! EVEN IF THEY ACTED COMPLETELY NORMAL I'D THINK IT WAS SWEET. and to the idiots of the Africans Women blog, fucking go look at RE4 and every other RE before you fuckin made retarted statements!
It's just like makin fun of somone for bein black and getting in so much shit, but they call white people cracker and insults against our race everyday so fuck this RETARTED 1-WAY BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I mean, c’mon now, this is just a game, why didn’t anyone complain bout killing spanish people when it came to RE4??"

Who complains about one Caucasian shooting another?
@TJ Landry

Why are you railing on carbonatedgravy? He's done nothing wrong, and to instantly assume he has "heavy white guilt" (a racist thing to say in itself) is absurd.

In fact, I feel much the same way that he does, with two key distinctions:

First, I'm not embarrassed that the people spouting this racist filth are the same race as me; I'm embarrassed that they belong to the same SPECIES.

Second, I'm not going to apologize. I never apologize on behalf of anyone but myself, and as I haven't done anything wrong, I feel no need to make amends.
Power - My dumb ass listed more than one game. lol.
I think this is just someone not understanding of RE, anyone whose played it knows that something is turning these people into savage monsters, which if you think about it shows that without that something they would be peacefull...or not, its just a misunderstanding, either way its their opinion and their welcome to it, ill still buy it anyway
"Featuring eyes that shine with a hybrid of madness and lucidity, the townsfolk don't appear to be along the lines of the rotting, shambling undead found in earlier Resident Evils. The emphasis on the next generation of the not-zombies' mental clarity is stressed by villagers rallying around an apparent leader speaking to the masses through a megaphone."
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/804/804424p1.html

Chris Redfield is not shooting zombies.
I mean, c'mon now, this is just a game, why didn't anyone complain bout killing spanish people when it came to RE4??
@ monolithic.

Unfortunately that was no joke, it's reality.
you know what's funny? you can't even say the word "black" without the accusations from these liberals that it's racist. so now, when i would have to buy black paint at home depot and they didn't have it available, i'll ask an employee for some "african american" shade no. 3.
@LiK SHoT:

They're just trolls. It's fun feeding them from time to time, but if they really bother you, just ignore them and they'll go away.
@ CarbonatedGravy

Thanks for taking your obvious heavy white guilt and apologizing on my behalf and every other white on this forum. Where would we be without guys like you. In a better place maybe.

@ A Black Guy

So instead of apologizing and admitting your wrong you state why you got mad and justified it because of your past experiences. Would you like ME to share my experiences with blacks from the low income neighborhood I grew up in (sorry, we aren't all privileged with jobs and middle class suburban homes)? Would I be "racist" because those experiences are mostly negative and my resulting statements would reflect that? or would you prefer we all be showing phony deference like mister Carbonatedgravy here and act like mewling Don Knotts types until some vague future time when you feel "payback" is complete? Get over the fact that there are assholes at every turn and learn how to deal with it. No one owes you respect until you earn it.
this is why i hate black people... they are ignorant and more racist then any white person i have ever known.

if a black person shoots a white person its fine, flip it around and we have a problem.
@monolithic

Except that it's a continuation of past Resident Evil games, using the same protagonist. They can't just turn him black. Even if it was a stand-alone game, though, changing the protagonist to make him black would just create more problems, including accusations of pandering to *insert rival faction here*.
RE4 has you killing Spanish people so is that a racist problem too?
um denis i think you have some serious cleaning up to do here, this forum seems to be infected by some genuine racists.
I'm so sick of black people playing the race card at the drop of a hat. The game is in f*cking Africa. If they were all white zombies, this b*tch would be complaining that a game based in Africa didn't have enough black people in it. It's a GAME. Get over yourselves! Whitey is not keeping you down. There is nobody standing at your door with a shotgun making sure you don't get an education and a real job. It's this kind of groupism and self-imposed oppression that not only keeps the black community from moving on, but actually CREATES resentment in members of other races. I realize that this woman does not speak for all black people (thank god), but it's kind of sad that she thinks she's actually doing her race a favor.
Wow...Of course....Leave it to a black women to cry racism....Im sorry...Im not trying to be racist either...But Im my experiences its always Black people who cry racism the first chance they get.....Its a fucking video game!!!!......Lets take the game Crackdown for example.....The character that was used in many videos befor the game was released was a Black man....He was killing white people, spanish people, chinese people....I certainly wasnt offended by that.....Why??....Because its a videogame!!!....The people who are quick to Pull the Race card are only Racist themselfs.......Leave Capcom alone....Im sure they didnt intended to hurt anyones feelings........People just need to relax
@ Power - the "black people vs. niggas" thing is a (rather poorly mis)quote from a Chris Rock routine. So the poster was being dumb, but maybe not quite as dumb as you're giving him credit for.
Blade video game anyone?
yeah, aids, oppression, the man, the IMF, all of these things are bad, but when I heard that Africa had been infected by the t-virus or plagas virus, it really hit hard. i mean, that sucks big time. I ask myself what i can do, and all i can think of is to give my prayers to these poor people. What gets me the most is that Capcom has trivialized the horrible actions of umbrella, even to the point of racism. It is horrible that they would portray white people in such a way as to show them as killers. I half expect a white guy to come and shoot me in the head the next time i'm walking around the street looking tired. I know there must be some kind of soul in a white man, but this game is making me think that maybe they are merciless killers. In fact, we should do something about it.....
Well, this got out of control quickly.
Cynical I completely agree with you. I could not have said it better myslef.
Wow this is sad. So what happened with GTA3 and the black guy killing whites, blacks and hispanics? Or the recent Crack Down. The main guy is a black guy and he kills, Hispanics, Russians and Asians. But the real problem here is this. 20 white guys with a single shot gun did not go into Africa and come out with 300 plus slaves. They were sold to the white man or used in a trade for goods by a "BLACK King". Blacks kings in Africa use his own black people as slaves and killed them I'm sure in the same way or worse. But hey blame the white guy as always.
Agreed Simplicity

It's very annoying that this sort of attitude crops up so often in the gaming community, be it about race, gender, or sexual preference, there seems to be a hair trigger for many game enthusiasts (hopefully because most of them online are very young and don't have the expirence in life to relly empathise with others) to go off in a tirade about "reverse descrimination", or how "that bitch just doesn't get gamers", or that so and so charactor "sucks because he's a fag".

It is very...annoying...to say the least. (especially if you happen to fall into one of those oft-derided groups)
The same people that don't see a problem with the game are the same people that saw a problem with OJ's book. If it's just a game; then it's just a book.
@LiK SHoT:
Uh...what's that supposed to mean?
Resident Evil 5 is dead as long as it has a white man shooting women of African origin. Likewise, Resident Evil 5 would be dead if it had an African-American man shooting caucasian women.
Darrel said "I think the biggest problem here is that it’s not very noticeble to the untrained eye that the black folks in that game are zombies/Las Plagas infected.

In RE4, there were subtle hints that gave the player the idea that the villagers you fight are inhuman and sort of zombie like and creepy.

In RE5, it doesn’t give that impression. It says “Black dudes vs white guy” instead of “Zombies vs a guy.” I think all Capcom needs to do is make the zombies a bit more obvious, because to anyone who NEVER played RE before, it looks more like a white guy gunning down hordes of Africans. "

I don't know if you know this or not but the game isn't out yet. You had "subtle hints" in RE4 because you were playing it, your watching the trailer now and they don't have time to try and slowly show you that people are infected with las plagas. They need to get to the point quick. Second thing is, did any white people complain when the zombies and las plagas were white in EVERY OTHER RESIDENT EVIL game? No. Why is it a big deal now then? Should there be no black people in a game set in Africa then? That would probably get you even more upset. This is a total non issue that everyone is making their cause for no reason. BREAKING NEWS: People in Africa are black. So the setting is in Africa and the people are African and the game is about zombies, I don't know if you can put 2 and 2 together but that means that the zombies will be black in this game.
Attention everyone:

If you are going to post here pelase lay off the sailor talk and the n-word, it's not helping, in fact it makes us here look genuinely racist
Gorram other posters getting in the way of my insult to Me...
Power-

Before you comment on no black characters in the game you might want to familiarize yourself with the entire collection of Resident Evil games. =) Just a thought, ya know to make your opinion credible.

Why should it be a requirement for a black person to be in the game? Isn't that kind of racist too? Saying every story you write has to have a black main character or else its racist. Kind of silly if you ask me. Of course I think most arguements on racism is silly because rarely does one have a legitimate point... unless your speaking against hate groups then its a bit different.
@power

Grand theft auto San Andreas has a black protagonist.
Something some of you should take notice of as it reveals a certain bias. You complaining about black people complaining about this game, but as the quote makes clear there has been no concerted effort to do so. This is one black woman, uneducated on this game and others apparently, complaining. However, I do agree that they don't look quite dead enough. RE 4's zombie operated and thought as a collective despite the way they looked. SO far, these guys aren't as visually zombified. Capcom should work on that.

Also, posters complaining about not being about to use the n-word are idiots. I can't emphasize that enough.
Ms. Ruberg puts together a much more coherent argument as to the complexities of the race issue in the upcoming Resident Evil game. She both gives some form of credibility on the issue in that she has played the games before and gives concession that the context of the game might provide that the game isn't entirely about the blatant destruction of Africans. I'd make an interjection as to what the nature of the game is, but without sufficient storyline to determine the context of the game defending the story at this time is pointless.

It is in my opinion however, that a zombie is no longer nor should be considered a human being, thus the race of a zombie is irrelevant.
First of all im black,and i think ppl are takin this the wrong way. I dont have a problem with the zombies being black, but when i was watchin the trailer, i didnt think they even looked like zombies (my opinion). Also, i have never seen a black main character in a video game, im jus wonderin y they also seem t be white
Well wtf is it supposed to be? A white man gunning down white people in AFRICA? Or a black man gunning down white people in AFRICA? Shit, why don't we just make it a black person gunning down hordes of Mexicans in China.
Yeah, the NAACP is too-tally racist like the KKK, what with all those times they've lynched people...and...uh...wait they've never done that.
"all i said is that there are barely next to no black main characters in games. it always seems that ppl of colour are not as important when it comes to gaming"


What about the Erudites in Everquest? Or Barret in Final Fantasy VII?

Alyx from Half-Life 2 isn't a playable character but she is a rather prominent character, and her father Eli Vance is one of the top scientists.
C'mon people. What should African Zombies look like? Asians? Hispanics? Native American? Aliens? News flash for the ignorant. Africa is well over 90% black. Just like I would expect the zombies to look asian if the game was set in China. The bloger has her own racist sentiments wanting African zombies to be white. That's too funny. If this is the biggest issue facing you today then great!
Let live that was one of the most ignorant comments ive ever heard. stfu and get educated. No one brought up the racial epithet but you found it neccessary to define it (also ur definition is entirely wrong and retarted, grow up).
Oh one question. Are these people zombies or are they the infected ala 28 Days Later?
Verpiss dich, Geh Einhandsegeln:
you are exactly the reason why this is happening.
SHUT THE FUCK UP!
your mom also bitches about black zombies
This video very clearly shows whats going on and i see one white/hispanic man being beaten and a flash of an african zombie being downed.
The developers are japanese, I am within a multicultural society, there is no undue violence to african people in this game, it is very clear the african people causing the riot are infected with the T-Virus (Which now infects africa). A black police officer dies in RE2 after infection as does another in the movie. Lets not forget for at least 3-4-5 games it was white people dying.
We have age ratings in my country backed up by law.
This is a case of the blog in question crying foul and making themselves unequal just for the sake of it.. if they had played the game they would of known the story and wouldn't of made the post period.
Great way to play the race card.

Stop caring about race so much.
Oh yea Vice City had Lance, Unreal has black characters in it, Gears of war... Socom... Do I really need to keep going?
your mom is a black zombie
Incase I do, the sims, NFL games, NBA games, Fight Night, ect. Simply put games have a wide variety of skin color when it comes to characters. Next argument please.
So typical from blacks, so typical. Black people are the most racist people on the entire planet besides da juden.
San Andreas ring a bell? Only one of the most popular games in recent history....
Things like this anger me so much. I hate to tell them but that is what most of Africa looks like, most of Africa is not in the 21st century yet. If it was a black person doing the killing would they still be making the same argument?? I highly doubt it.

And these games are NOT marked towards children. On the box of all the Resident Evil it clearly states 'M' for mature audiences. So children should not be allowed to access the game.

I do believe that the purpose of a company is to make money not inspire "fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."

If this group were to have its way then what would change the white man to a black man, would the horde of people be Caucasian, Asian, or Mexican, instead of black....but then wouldn't that be racism, towards those groups?

When the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" came out I did not hear an out cry from this group when it allowed for the mass killing of people. So apparently it is only racism when African Americans are being "victimized" by a white male.
Terrible Tom-

When did i say it was a requirement to have black ppl in a game. all i said is that there are barely next to no black main characters in games. it always seems that ppl of colour are not as important when it comes to gaming
Ummm, who cares? In the long run, it's all racism towards the Undead! "All I wanted was a snack, and now I have to hide from crosses and other holy relics, and of course I can't be seen in the day for fear of my life, so now my social life is completely nocturnal! I just wanted a little nip!" - Count Vlad Dracul.
All this is is some racist bitch wanting to complain about anything she could possibly turn into a racist matter. She is completely full of shit.
It's sad people have nothing better to complain about.
As everyone else is saying, why didn't everyone bitch about RE4! the person who started this whole problem probably has no idea what RE4 is about. its not about a man that goes to Africa and says hey, i feel like killing black people today. its about SURVIVAL because there are "ZOMBIES" present!!!!
this person probably just saw the trailer, not knowing whats going on, and the only thing she saw was a man killing Africans, not how they change into zombies and how all of them attack him.

ALL a really have to say is, is PLEASE shut up!! this is a highly anticipated game and we don't need a troublesome person like you to delay the game!
to the German speaking posters,
you are exactly the reason why this is happening.
there dead ppl ure just killing again in game . no biggy, im sure theres hoards of white ppl sumwhere in the game too. so if ure black and got a problem with the hoards of black ppl just get the game and shoot hoards of white ppl when they come out.
This is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

I mean really, it's damn video game.

Shush.
Slavery ended many years ago. Move the **** on!
Fellas, fellas... I know how to settle this predicament. Just make the protagonist black and the zombie villagers white.
"Slavery ended many years ago. Move the **** on!"

Yeah, poor whitey, the man's always keepin' him down.

:rolleyes:
Funny how there were more then 4 other RE games out already and no one ever complained about how its going to give people a sense of fear and hate towards anyone else!

and i dont think the game is marketed towards kids! M ratings are not for kids! what a dumbass!

tell this bitch to stop being a baby and suck it up!
people like her make me sick!
NAACP is racist because of its name. It implies it only wants to advance on race of people. NAACP is in the same category as the Neo-Nazi's and the KKK. Punish all racists.!!

::sarcasm::

Really guys its a game, its located in africa and its about zombies. Whats the big deal?
your mom is a racist
I guess Ghost Recon 2 was racist because it was a white man gunning down mexicans.
This game isn't being marketed towards children or young adults. It's not even rated yet, but once development is done I'm sure they'll stamp it with an MA rating which means no one under the age of 17 will be able to buy it. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT before you go off and rant about instilling racist ideals onto our children.
Guys STOP calling them zombies, that's so fucking racist. They are Living-Impaired-Americans, or, since these particular zed word aren't in America, Living-Impaired-Africans.

Won't somebody please think of the Living-Impaired-Africans?
I hope eventually this society become colorblind. However, when crazy people see victimization in everything like they're doing with RE5, that just holds us back in the past.

Lets stop thinking everything is racist and progress into the 21st century. Leave the race-baiting behind.
OH NO.

Black people being killed in a game set in Africa??

IT'S A WHITE POWER PLOT. DUH

Should we make them all grey?

What ever stupid woman wrote this needs to go fall down some stairs or something. Knock some sense into her.
your mom is one of the top scientists
I showed this trailer to someone who ended up being offended for a different reason. She thought it was inaproppriate to make the people of (Eastern, I'm guessing) Africa, who've endured hardships from starvation to brutal dictators, the unwitting villains in a game; a game that encourages you to mow them down by the droves. Pitting a white man against a village of black Africans may evoke feelings of white colonial guilt or a liberal uneasiness, but she thought of it more as insult to injury. As an exaggeration, but perhaps the only tragedy we can really relate to these days, the equivalent could be a game featuring a European fighting through New York on September 12th, killing savage survivors who had been zombified by the attack. It's a stretch, but I guess that's the closest I can personally get to what she was feeling.
I feel sorry for the people at this blog. They're too blinded by their own pride in their never ending search for hate that they don't realize that they're the ones (a la Al Sharpton) that are responsible for perpetuating racism. Let's face it, you can't look for ill-will and hate without knowing it well enough to find it, and if you know it that well....

It would die if we'd leave it alone so that it COULD die. Let it die Kym. Every time you stir the pot, you are personally responsible for unearthing the proud few ignorant racists out there.
When was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Zombies (NAACZ) formed?

I wonder where the civil rights advocates were for the white and spanish zombies killed in the past.

These people need to solve some real problems. I hope it trains my kids to kill black zombies,...i'll blow their gray matter all over the wall if I ever see one,...just the same as I would any other colored variety of zombie.

The only good zombie,...is a dead zombie,...charbroiled or not.
We must truely let go of the past for racism to parish. If we keep bringing it up at inopportune times, we just simply further the schism between races.
who caress if its a white guy shooting black ppl, its just a game. in all the other RE's it was always a white guy shooting white ppl and white ppl werent complaining even if it was a black guy shooting white ppl we wouldnt of complained its ppl like u that wont let racism die, if black ppl werent accusing white ppl of being racist all the time we'd all be alot better off, plus the damn thing was made in japan prolly, i dont exactly think they got a thing against black ppl.
It's a problem of the historical past, and imagery. If white people had been enslaved, murdered and raped systematically by black people for a two hundred year(give or take some) period, i would say a game with black character subjugating white ones was a dangerous propogation of racist imagery, however, that's not the case so i have to go the other way. Your subconcious is a fertile place, and combined image/sound/motion medias have a way of accessing it that few other things can even begin to touch. If you think the raw imagery of a white man slaughtering black folx DOESNT get into your brain, you're joking yourself in a serious way. I think in this case it's paramount to consider the CONTEXT of the images. White people are currently slaughtering, dressed in military garb, white people opressed africans for two centuries, these two facts are not to be disregarded in presenting material. Tastefulness is a virtue unless applied to truth. A game about zombie killing is not an examination of truth. I'd apply some tastefulness(making those zombies more zombielike would be better). How about a story driven zombie game set in Haiti. THAT would be cool, and could involve like, a real interesting plot as well.
I think everyone's missing the real intolerance of the game. The game teaches kids to kill zombies, and the zombies can't complain because all the only word they can use is 'brains'. And the resident evil series make them look even more stupid because they can't even say that. Other than the occasional super zombie that can say 'stars', all they can do is grunt.
Poor zombies. All they want is some food.
Oddly enough, from her myspace gems post, and this sin't her quote but from a post on Nigeria:

"You call them African Zombies, we call them voters."

There's the problem.
The first problem is right here

"the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."

It isn't marketed to children. I don't know whether this woman is over senstitive or deliberately using the "children" card to try and get the game banned. Either way, she comes across as misinformed and uneducated.
Hello, i am a racist. I would like to play this game. I hope it comes out soon.
They should just put white and black versions of Michael Jackson in Thriller. That would make everyone happy
Ummmm are you really that brain dead? seriously? it takes place in africa sooo of course the game will have black zombies numb nuts.
Yea your right no games should ever be based in Africa if it has to do with killing people. We just don't have the right to make fictional video games that are violent and based in Africa because if it is in Africa it automatically qualifies it as racist.
So basically, no zombie games should ever be set in Africa. Or if they are, then they should be set in Egypt or Libya. That way, you're just killing Arabic zombies and aren't being racist against black people.
I don't understand why places like Joystiq and GamePolitics (and my own forum) are linking to her. This isn't news - in my opinion.

She's expressing her opinion - from what I skimmed a fairly ignorant one, but in some ways an understandable one - and she did it partially because she's genuinely concerned (racism totally does still exist) and she was also probably hoping to get some attention for her blog. So, like flies on ... compost... the gaming community knee jerks back and the a-holes get some attention for themselves. Now people will step in and use this molehill to make a mountain for their own gain.

Yay Internet!
Resident Evil 4 had a white character killing other whites. Resident Evil 5 should have a Haitian character killings other Haitians.
wow, if she really means what she says then i can say something like this:
Ban all the games where you fight russians! Coz thats just freaking racist!
But i dont coz i dont give a crap! i think its time that we stop taking things personaly.
At least this site doesn't have people shouting outright racist comments at each other and pretending to be each other with the logins and making fun of each other. Personally, Racism is in the eye of the beholder in most situations, but calling some else "Spick" "Cracker" or "Nigger"
Is just downright ignorant.
Look on the digg about the 2 heatsinks for the elite, you'll see what I mean.
I'm the guy getting all worked up about people making racist comments.
I don't however feel like Resident Evil 5 has any implications of racism.
They happen to be in Africa, those are simply the people who live there and are infected.
Fuck!!!

People take offense when none is meant, and turn around and act like idiots and offend other on purpose.
What is up with this world?
Grow up.
Okay, I'd nearly forgotten why I stopped reading the comments section of GP. Gorram, the argument that RE5 may be racist is probably silly, but fer' frak's sake, listen to your *own* frelling comments people!
Jesus fucking ass, you've got OVER 200 comments featuring boarderline mysonginist and racist insults. If only the article writer were gay!, then we'd have the full trifecta of negetive gamerboy steryotypes represented here!
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! FEEL THE POORLY CONCEALED HATE!!!
tell me about it. i've been killing spaniards nonstop since resident evil 4 came out.

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Crispy Gamer




       

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 03/20/10 at 10:32pm
Aliasalpha: Ding dong the witch is dead eh? Maybe we'll finally be treated as adults here and women can have small tits again!
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:28pm
JDKJ: Survey says no opinion either way. But approval is high among wombats.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:25pm
BearDogg-X: JDKJ: What does the wallabies and crocodiles think of Skippy?
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:24pm
Andrew Eisen: Beardogg-X - Not staunchly, no. However, only one AG has gone on record as supporting an R18+ rating. The rest either stated no position or declined to comment.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:23pm
JDKJ: Of 437 koala bears surveyed, 420 disagree with choice of Skippy for interim AG.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:21pm
BearDogg-X: With Atkinson stepping down, the question now becomes was there any other AG besides him that was against R18+? His stepping down does make R18+ more likely to be approved.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Well, Adelaide readers seem pleased with Atkinson's decision. 420 out of 437.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:15pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: Vacant Aussie AG post to be filled by Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:12pm
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Gamecube and Xbox came out in late 2001 with contollers pretty similar to the Dual Shock. You never know thoug. This Fall may be when the standard controller changes from the Dual Shock to a motion wand. *shudder*
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:09pm
Flamespeak: at a quicker rate these days.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:09pm
Flamespeak: I believe that was launched in the first part of 1998. 2 years seems kind of fast too, but then again the world seems to move
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:05pm
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Not when you consider Sony's been using the same controller since the PS1.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:03pm
BearDogg-X: Andrew Eisen: I meant that it won't take as many people to change their votes next election. Besides that, it's become a moot point now that he's stepping down as AG as soon as the election's over.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:02pm
Flamespeak: Seems kind of early considering the PS2 didn't launch until well into 2000.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:01pm
Andrew Eisen: Fleamespeak - I'd say since around the turn of the century.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:01pm
BearDogg-X: BREAKING NEWS: Atkinson will step down as South Australia Attorney-General; will remain in Parliament
Posted 03/20/10 at 09:59pm
Andrew Eisen: BearDogg-X - Not sure what your point about Atkinson having only 8500 votes is, seeing as that's around 65% (of the total votes counted at the time).
Posted 03/20/10 at 09:57pm
Flamespeak: I remember when the NES controller held that honor and the stand alone one button joystick before that.
Posted 03/20/10 at 09:56pm
Flamespeak: artistic rendering of things associated with gaming? Even GP has a rough version of one in their logo.
Posted 03/20/10 at 09:56pm
Flamespeak: Just out of curiosity, when did the PS2 controller become the 'standard' for video game controller representation in most
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