Croal lays into "racist" Resident Evil 5

[Shrygue]

via Games Industry


Newsweek's games writer, N'Gai Croal, has expressed his concerns over the imagery depicted in the trailer for Capcom's forthcoming title Resident Evil 5, a trailer for which was shown at E3 last year.

"Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game," was his first reaction to seeing the trailer, he said in an interview with MTV Multiplayer.

"It's like when you engage that kind of imagery you have to be careful with it," he went on to explain. "It would be like saying you were going to do some sort of zombie movie that appeared to be set in Europe in the 1940's with skinny, emaciated, Hasidic-looking people.

"If you put up that imagery people would be saying, 'Are you crazy?' Well, that's what this stuff looks like. This imagery has a history. It has a history and you can't pretend otherwise.

"That imagery still has a history that has to be engaged, that has to be understood. If you're going to engage imagery that has that potential, the onus is on the creator to be aware of that because there will be repercussions in the marketplace."

The Resident Evil 5 trailer shows protagonist Chris Redfield in a small, poor and dusty village, the location of which isn't specified but is strongly reminiscent of certain third world countries.

Redfield is the only white character portrayed in the three minute trailer, while all of the zombies are made up of black inhabitants, who Redfield proceeds to try and kill - both male and female.

But Croal's argument isn't with the fact that the zombies shown were all black - it's the general treatment of the subject material that's he's concerned with.

"The point isn't that you can't have black zombies. There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery," he said.

"That's the whole thing where only Chris Redfield appears to be human before they turn into zombies; the humanity of other people is in question. It's like you barely see their faces, he doesn't really interact with them, he sort of walks through this thing and it's sort of, 'Is he there? Is he not?'

"It's a very strange thing, and it taps into sort of this very racist iconography. I think that's the only way I'm describing it. I'm not saying that was their intent. But it seems that a lot of people who were up in arms about the trailer couldn't see that and didn't want to engage it.

"I think, again, the point is not that Capcom can't or shouldn't make a zombie game set in what appears to be an impoverished country where the majority of residents are black.

"I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that if I was Capcom, I wouldn't have suggested to put out that trailer. I would have said, 'You know what, this has tremendous capacity for being misunderstood, and we want to signal that this is not what you might think it is' - and they didn't do that."

Initial reaction to the Resident Evil 5 trailer was mixed, with some people expressing unease at the content, while some gamers dismissed any racist connotations.

The game is set for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms later this year.

[Torgod13]

Hmmm.. no one has a problem with German being portrayed as Nazi Vampire Zombies in Wolfenstein... Get over it... and grow some thicker skin. "Capcom can't or shouldn't make a zombie game set in what appears to be an impoverished country where the majority of residents are black " But it's ok to have all Romanian or what ever they were in #4. The people who often scream racism are the most racist of all. Next we will have PETA saying we cant have zombie dogs and crows..

[Ultima Chocochu]

Zombies? Resident Evil doesn't really have zombies anymore, Ganados are quite different what an idiot.

I think the reason any of it is racist is because they make it out to be honestly, the originals had white/black Americans being killed
The fourth followed the same gameplay, and NO BLACK PEOPLE, but they note NOTHING of that

I'm not racist, but I'm sick of real racist trying to make it about black or white, and try to make something out of absolutely nothing.

[Tyr]

Tetris is the most racist game ever , theres no blacks in it!

[lmtlmt]

Everyhting is racist these days but actually people say things are but they are clearly not

[Eviltaco64]

Nowadays, it seems that people encourage racism.
If a black man IS potrayed, it's racist for potraying them in a way that they dont like.
If a black man isnt included in something, it's racist for not including him.

In RE4, you were in a little Spanish village shooting Spaniards, but of course since their skin is on the white side it doesnt matter.

If they made a new Punch-Out game, I'm pretty sure Nintendo would get sued for Doc Lewis being a big angry looking black man with thick lips.

[F9zDark]

This is ****ing ridiculous. So we can't make a game that depicts a certain country and its inhabitants because its racist?

Thats laughable. If RE4 took place in Mexico, however, it would be racist too, according to Croal.

[Shadowblind]

This is ****ing ridiculous. So we can't make a game that depicts a certain country and its inhabitants because its racist?

Thats laughable. If RE4 took place in Mexico, however, it would be racist too, according to Croal.

But not in Spain, noooo way. In fact I think that any game based in Africa anywhere is absolutely and utterly racist, since Africa doesn't exist. Is that your logic, Croal?

[Eviltaco64]

But not in Spain, noooo way. In fact I think that any game based in Africa anywhere is absolutely and utterly racist, since Africa doesn't exist. Is that your logic, Croal?

You cant say that Africa doesnt exist! Because that's racist too!