With the impending release of Resident Evil 5, the topic of whether or not the game is inherently racist has surfaced once more. Earlier in 2008, when a trailer was launched showcasing main character Chris Redfield fighting against African antagonists, a strong divide on whether or not the short video conjured images of racism and prejudice was present through the gaming industry. The problem was further exacerbated by the mainstream blogging universe and media getting a hold of the concept and putting spin after spin on what they felt was clear, unadulterated racial slander in the form of Resident Evil 5. While it is important to understand the history that African-Americans have gone through and the hardships they have suffered, RE5 does not tap into those, nor does it attempt to act as a “training simulator” for gamers.
Knowing the history of the Resident Evil franchise makes any argument for racial propaganda negligible. The game has historically been about a white guy (or girl) killing zombies of mostly light-skinned coloring. This was all in context, however, as is RE5’s scenario. In Raccoon City (presumably a place in the United States, where the majority of the population is white) the lead characters killed white zombies. Okay, no problems there. In RE4, Leon Kennedy travels to Spain to rescue the President’s daughter from a cult with specific demands. Once more, no resistance. As soon as the game makes a logical step forward in both setting and environment to Africa, America explodes (and yes, I’d argue that it is mainly America that is affected by this, as other countries seem to be acting more grown-up on this subject). Kym Platt, blogger on www.askthisblackwoman.com (which appears to be offline) made a strong statement about the game affecting her in a prejudicial way. Her posts became incredibly public, and I am incredibly ashamed to say that several gamers left nasty remarks on her page, using racial slurs and hurtful slander to try and bring her down. While I respect Ms. Platt’s opinion, it seems that she had made a fatal error in composing her thoughts, and that is that she made little to no effort to understand the game and its history. This is where the racial argument is negated. The Progenitor virus has been stated as originating in Africa earlier in the game’s long-running history. It only makes sense to believe that this fact justifies the dramatic change in setting for the franchise, and as such, the idea of RE5 being a “training simulator” for “14 year old white boys” to be corrupted by is much too far-fetched for me to latch onto.
What’s more is that the majority of people who feel that race IS an issue with RE5 are making all sorts of strides to ensure that their opinion is well-versed and heard by many. This is where most of the negativity surrounding the issue comes from. While it’s easy to argue that the game bears racist imagery and propaganda, to pull excessive attention to it only makes people angry, especially when it’s not something that has been paid much mind to until brought up. While some might argue that the game’s imagery is the big pink elephant in the room that everyone refuses to acknowledge, this is not the case. N’Gai' Croal’s post touched on this, and was one of the best, well-composed supporting arguments for the racist case, although I feel he is incorrect, he brings up valid points that truly deserve some recognition.
HOWEVER.
The general idea that the game is TRYING to bring these images out of hiding and into the limelight is, in a word, ridiculous. To be honest, the last thing on my mind when I saw that trailer was “Oh man, there’s too many black people in this game. This is going to get noticed.” I saw no black people. I saw no racism. I saw zombies. I saw ordinary human beings that had been genetically mutated by a terrible virus that needed to be stopped, and that virus made them very, very angry at my in-game character. What’s more, is that the supporting character, Sheva Alomar, is dark-skinned as well. This in and of itself almost completely destroys the racial insensitivity argument, especially considering that Sheva looks poised to become a character that the player gets attached to, not just because she’s pretty, but because she cares about what’s going on. While not much detail has been revealed yet, it seems that Sheva might actually be a native of the region, while still being a part of the special forces branch that Chris Redfield is associated with. I might even go so far as to guess that the story will touch on this and have Sheva showing compassion (with an appropriate response from Chris) for her fellow citizens.
To believe that RE5 is a racist game is something I honestly find blown far, far out of proportion. The game does not feature a white supremacist character as some people would have you believe, nor does that character act harshly towards the dark-skinned antagonists. Even in the demo build this is apparent. Chris isn’t screaming, “DIE FUCKERS!” while firing wildly at the enemies, but is instead terrified of the situation and wants to help out as quickly as possible. So if you expect Capcom to try and make a game that is directly attempting to reignite the fires of slavery or racial prejudice, you are one of the people taking this too far. It is a game, and like all media should be looked at objectively. I didn’t see people getting upset with Blood Diamond, nor did I hear about racism in Black Hawk Down. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it before, movies and games deserve the same treatment. They are both forms of entertainment media and as such, deserve to be looked at in similar ways.
So, please, if you read this and feel either similarly or differently, please post your mature comment in the comments section, and we can prove to the media that gamers are not immature snots without social morals or standards. Any comments with hate speech or racial slurs will be deleted and reported.
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