IS RESIDENT EVIL 5 "Less Racis" Now?

[BigTruckSeries]

I think the word "racism" gets tossed around by people who don't actually know what it means, but, in the case of the early previews of Resident Evil 5, I was bothered by the context of Chris Redfield - a White male - going to poor African (Haitian?) villages and gunning down various Black civilians even with the backdrop of a "virus/zombie plague".


When I downloaded and played the demo yesterday on 360, I noticed that the civilians looked "less Black" and were mixed with brown and White "zombies" as well as the fact Chris is working with a Black Woman named Sheeva.

I'm glad Capcom took these measures, but it beckons the question, does RE5 lose any credibility?

Africa isn't all Black...there are plenty of Whites and Brown skinned living there. However, the poor villages are less mixed, and more homogenous.

The people in RE5's demo didn't even look very Black to me. They really looked and sounded like Arabs - which seems to be the current ethnicity no one minds shooting at in a video game.


Years back I played soldier of Fortune (PC) and there was a part when John Mullins goes to SUDAN and guns down a bunch of Black Sudanese terrorists - who are for some reason working with the White Supremacists to launch a Neutron bomb at NYC - but I didn't really think the game was racist...especially since Mullins had a partner named Hawk who was Black.


But other people didn't see it that way and they claimed that mullins gunned down people of color, Black, Japanese and hispanic and that the only Whites he gunned down were inherently evil (skinheads and neo nazi's).

So my point is, is it better that Capcom altered the game or does it even matter?

Could it be that this is just "cultural insensitivity" - the Japanese making a game about Whites killing poor Blacks without recognizing the connotation?

A better question might be, why are we spending time and money virtually GUNNING PEOPLE DOWN?

 

[masterchris]

A better question might be, why are we spending time and money virtually GUNNING PEOPLE DOWN?

Finally, the question that needs to be asked.

 

[xxlordskullxx]

the whole thing just seems silly to me. i don't recall hearing an outcry when RE4 came out and had spanish zombies. there was no mixed or homogeneous races, it was every "zombie" speaking spanish (maybe 'zombie' can be a new ethnic race now, and not a disease or side effect of death). as soon as the setting takes place in africa and the 'zombies' are black people cry out racism. now i'm sure there will be racist people out there playing RE5 and enjoy the fact that the zombies are black, but the game didn't make them racist, they already were to begin with.

 

[BigTruckSeries]

the whole thing just seems silly to me. i don't recall hearing an outcry when RE4 came out and had spanish zombies. there was no mixed or homogeneous races, it was every "zombie" speaking spanish (maybe 'zombie' can be a new ethnic race now, and not a disease or side effect of death). as soon as the setting takes place in africa and the 'zombies' are black people cry out racism. now i'm sure there will be racist people out there playing RE5 and enjoy the fact that the zombies are black, but the game didn't make them racist, they already were to begin with.

But again, Spanish people have light skin and pass for White - and they were being killed by a White guy.

The way I see it, Zombies should be green/pale skinned and not speaking anything.

 

[GRColin]

Changing it around was fucking stupid. I understand there's people of all colour in Africa but the majority ARE BLACK. In South Africa I can expect a higher white population but come on...Asian, white, black...No one complained in RE4 about killing nothing but the Spanish.

 

[LinksOcarina]

That's because it was the Spanish though, why complain about the deaths of a whole group of white people?

 

[clayman637]

Quote BigTruckSeries: "I'm glad Capcom took these measures"

Thats retarded. They should not alter their creative materials to be "less offensive", It just lends credibility to real racists and racism and keeps the hate machine going.

They need to tell people to shut the fuck up. As i read in a response to the article targeting RE5, the game "Crackdown" has a black agent gunning down white people by the thousands, but do we complain?

Also a valid fact i take away from my psychology studies, the whole concept of "being offended" in reference to racist remarks and ideas is just utterly weak, pathetic, uneducated, and stupid. By letting yourself be offended by the work N i g g e r or any other hate word your just giving someone power over you.

Some black racists would love it if "cracker" offended white people, but since we don't give the word power, it has no control over us.

 

[subcalvin]

If killing "black zombies" is racist so is killing "white zombies" Why should one be considerd offensive and not the other. Personaly i find the matter stupid. It is a
video gamefor christ sake. That beeing said i do work with some people who have said that they will be buying this game because you get to (and i quote) "Kill blackies"
It does not take a genius to figure that these guys are morons.

 

[BigTruckSeries]

Some black racists would love it if "cracker" offended white people, but since we don't give the word power, it has no control over us.

The difference between nggr and cracker is that in reality, many Black Americans were killed by slavery and the Black family was torn apart. Therefore, the word nggr incites anger about this wherein the word cracker has no sting since there was no White enslavement.

Still, I'm glad Capcom changed the game. I doubt it will effect sales. People pre-order games and buy them just to buy them nowadays.

Now I suppose its time for the Arab defamation league to say something.

 

[Kijan]

Killing yelow zombies in Africa.

YELLOW ZOMBIES ... in Africa.

Every goddamn thing nowadays said against black people in Videogames is called racism. Sorry, I mean no offense but on the EA board for Deadspace I read numerous threads about the black captain getting sliced in half by a monster whilst he was protecting the protagonist in the middle of the game.

He was branded as a hero, but people still complained and called racism.

-___-

It is a damn game! And creativity should be not halted due to it.

 

[BigTruckSeries]

Every goddamn thing nowadays said against black people in Videogames is called racism. Sorry, I mean no offense but on the EA board for Deadspace I read numerous threads about the black captain getting sliced in half by a monster whilst he was protecting the protagonist in the middle of the game.

He was branded as a hero, but people still complained and called racism.

-___-

It is a damn game! And creativity should be not halted due to it.

OH GEE THANKS

Now I won't have to play Dead space since I know what happens to the Capatian. :-/

 

[GRColin]

That's because it was the Spanish though, why complain about the deaths of a whole group of white people?

True but people need to stop thinking black people are the only other race out there. And you know it was most likely white people trying to be politically correct that complained.

Besides, they've been killing each other for ages in Africa.

 

[BigTruckSeries]

Besides, they've been killing each other for ages in Africa.

Yeah...just like America, China, The Arabian Penninsula, Russia and the rest of the populated world.

 

[Yossarian29]

Oh man... They should start putting other races in WWII games, cuz I'm getting mighty offended that all the nazis I kill are the same color as me. Oh wait.... they did that in COD: World at War. I went to fight the japanese in the pacific. Buuuuuuuut....... I could'nt help noticing they were all of asian decent. Hmmmmm.... maybe there is a patch so I could be less offended.... where does the racism END???

 

[GRColin]

Besides, they've been killing each other for ages in Africa.

Yeah...just like America, China, The Arabian Penninsula, Russia and the rest of the populated world.

Exactly. So why should it matter who in the game is pulling the trigger?

Really, the whole thing was ridiculous.

 

[Yossarian29]

Quite ridiculous. I can't help feeling like racism goes both ways in this instance. Keeping tabs on how many people of one color are in the game or implying that there is a connection between the race of the protagonist and that of the enemies in the game feels kinda racist to me. I play a game and notice things that have nothing to do with political correctness. We are KILLING people in these games, after all. What ever happened to being color-blind?

 

[Boringman54]

I find it unfair. People find it wrong if black people are getting killed but no one gives two f***s if white people are getting killed. For me, it doesn't mater who's getting getting killed, whether their white, black, tan or any other colour.

 

[AMANIAC]

Yeah, I don't really care who I'm gunning down as long as it's fun and satisfying.

 

[Diabolus]

A better question might be, why are we spending time and money virtually GUNNING PEOPLE DOWN?

Finally, the question that needs to be asked.

Because it's fun? Yep.

 

[letusprey]

And so by “mojiniâ€