Resident Evil 5 accused of racism
When I finished watching the trailer for Resident Evil 5 (rumoured to be set in Haiti) I thought two things:
- That game looks stunning. After the brilliance of Resident Evil 4, that looks worth buying a new console for…
- Despite:
* The pre-existence of Chris Redfield…
* The previous games were set elsewhere, with mostly white zombies…
* If it is indeed set in Haiti, home of voodoo, then that would make perfect sense and bring an interesting new twist on the series…
* Capcom are Japanese, a country with its own cultural attitudes…
* The plot is unknown: Redfield’s mission is surely to save the local people from whatever is possessing them and he may well have black allies…
* RE5 is rated for adults. If you allow your child to play it you only have your own neglect to blame…
How long until some fool betrays their own innate racism by screaming:
Evil Racist Videogame Urges Us To Shoot Black People Shocker! Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children?!?
It’s taken even less time than I thought it would.
The only racism here is in the eye of the beholder. I see zombies, not black people to “fear, hate and destroy”. At worst, Capcom have been unwise to design a game which was bound to draw that reaction from certain quarters. But are Capcom responsible for people’s reactions, or themselves?
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August 2nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Umm, the “zombies” in 4 were Spanish. No-one was up in arms about that, what’s the big deal? I killed a shed-load of Chinese in Crackdown, doesn’t make it racist. And Haitians in one of the GTA games!
Duhhh. I love when people jump into these arguements without thinking.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
No doubt getting outraged over something trivial is easier than addressing social problems where they really exist.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I can’t count how many Mexicans I killed in GRAW and GRAW 2 either. Yeah there are more important things to complain about than zombies, such as starvation in africa and moron scally kids that live near me.