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.
Comments
"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
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?
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'.
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.
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)
GET OVER IT.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
And why was this not a problem when it was white people getting zombi-fied?
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.
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.
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.
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".
How long before the "Reverends" Al and Jesse pick this up?
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.
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 ?
hmmmm
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
@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.
Yeah I noticed that too. Which makes the claims of conspiracy all the more absurd.
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.)
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.
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.
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 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.