Resident Evil called 'racist video game series'

[Shrygue]

via Joystiq


An author on left-leaning AlterNet.org not only jumps on the controversy of Resident Evil 5's alleged racism, but calls it a "racist video game series." The article is such a mess that you really have to enjoy it for its absurdity. The piece starts by saying those who go to see the "blockbuster Resident Evil: Extinction" in the theaters may want to play the game, but those who do "will likely enter a world little-known beyond the expensive and expansive universe of gaming, a world increasingly populated with very dangerous depictions of nonwhites."

The author only covers RE4 and RE5 in declaring the series racist. For RE4 he says its Spaniards have "stereotypical Mexican accents" and that RE5 "could be a training video for a white supremacist race war or another U.S. military adventure in one of the increasing numbers of deserts on the planet." Beyond the Resident Evil series there is a rehash of the Haitian controversy from GTA: Vice City -- although the author is way off in his timeline calling GTA: VC "this year's most popular video game."

There's a lot more "racist" issues brought up, but the article really stands as great piece to highlight how even when you introduce diversity to gaming, it's not just the extreme exclusionists who get upset and don't understand why there are women, gays, non-whites in games, but the extreme inclusionists too. Although in the inclusionist's case they want a rosy picture painted of the non-majority group; however, that's boring for narrative, unrealistic and in the end racism really depends on context. There are more moderate views on race issues in video games and that really shouldn't be forgotten. The AlterNet article is just so weird in its "one step forward, two steps back" presentation, we can't help but share.

[Sonicboy 101]

I am getting really tired of this rubbish.
Ok, so zombies not being pure white is racist now, huh?
What a world.

[DazJW]

Those crazy Japanese white supremacists!...

[splodger15]

People call racist on anything these days

[masamune]

Its totally racist, if I ever went to a hispanic location in Europe I would expect to see no spanish speaking people... Also who would expect to see black zombies in Haiti... BAH!! totally racist...

[maxipower90]

yea so white people are being killed all the time in games but when a black persons the bad guy they cry foul... typical

[SimSon2k3]

omg there are no differnts, white people and black people are the same
to think about this topic thats racism, those people see a big differnt between black and white and thats not ok
in my opinion the game is not the problem

sorry for my bad language

[mcdougall57]

yea so white people are being killed all the time in games but when a black persons the bad guy they cry foul... typical

exactly, this is just bollocks. This kind of thing has gotten out of hand nowadays i know people who are scared to say the world black because they fear the black society will see it as racist. and i bet the guy who made this report isnt even spanish, yet he complains about the stereotypical spanyards accent what about the stereotypical english accent used in videogames,films and just about every tv program (not all people in england speak the southern accent!!), should we uproar about that?

[SilverDesertRain]

Only way to solve this matter is to put a black hero in the game. Also unlockable Japanese and an Arab hero will be a very good idea so everyone will be happy in the end except the zombies ofcourse... ;-)

[Game_over]

As an African-american.....I have to say that this is bull$#@!. It's obvious that they did not know anything about the series. Heres a few pointers:

* Chris Redfeild- the star of RE5 has been in the series since the first installment so niether him or Leon magically appear just to kill a certain group of people that is of different ethnicity as their's.

* Leon went to a small village in france, Chris is somewhere that looks like south america or africa.

* There is no adversity in regards to race in Japan, it's more to the contrary, try going yourself.

* Since both RE4 and RE5 take place in different countries, and it's about local becoming zombies and other mutants than chances are they are not all going to be white.

When we saw the trailer for the first time for RE5 we pretty much saw this coming, it's only the beginning, don't worry there is alot of people of color that are huge fans of the series and we all know better. Ignorance isn't always bliss.