More PC run amok: RE5 is racist

[Sniderman]

I had heard grumblings that The Usual Offended Suspects were upset that a white guy kills black guys in RE5. This is the first "news" report I've seen on the controversy. (It's from Fox News, so take it with a grain of salt.)

'Resident Evil' Creators Insist Game's Not Racist

And here's a link to the Google News page with "resident evil 5 racist" as the key words, and the comments are already starting to mount.

Google News items on the racism of RE5

-sigh- I thought the whole "monkey-may-be-Obama-shooting-cartoon-racism" arguments were stupid. But this is just...wow. Comments?

[Aussie2B]

It's just funny to me that people shout "racism!" over this, yet no one was bothered that you kill almost nothing but Hispanics in RE4. But I guess since they're Hispanics from Spain and not Latin America, it's okay. Konami even caved in on this and added in random Asians, Arabs, and Caucasians to kill in RE5, even though it doesn't really make any sense. I guess the general message is: if you're killing people, you're not allowed to set your game in any region of the world unless its population is predominantly white or your main character isn't white.

[roushimsx]

What offends me are the people crying out that these things are racist. To me, those are the people that have issues and are "racist".

[BHvrd]

His comments were on the mark and noone else seems to be getting radical about this, the article seems very positive imo I see nothing to sigh about.

[heybtbm]

Kotaku had a better article yesterday....

http://kotaku.com/5165545/an-informe...-on-re5-racism

What's crazy is the comment section. Gamers wishing the game were edited or not released at all. Gamers wishing this (shakes head).

[Phyeir]

What offends me are the people crying out that these things are racist. To me, those are the people that have issues and are "racist".

Totally agree with you there. It's not like the game is set in Utah and you're blasting a crapload of black people. That wouldn't make sense.

[scooterb23]

You aren't killing black people...you're killing black zombies. There's a difference.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I remember the whole racial type thing coming up years ago. I believe that they were comparing Rambo, which received an 'R' rating, where he killed Asians, to Scarface, which originally received an 'X' rating where he killed white people. It was reported that the true violence/gore level was about the same, it was just a matter of who was being killed.


JY

[carlcarlson]

Grand Theft Auto IV promotes terrorism because you play a Serbian (I think) that kills white people. Cops even. Oh my.

[SegaAges]

Uh, this also means that Lost Odyssey is racist since you kill a buttload of Asians in the game.

Super Street Fighter 2 is racist since Dee Jay and Balrog (M.Bison for the true SF Fans) get pwned unless you are really good at using them.

I thought that one of the RE games took place in the Caribbean too.

[Nebagram]

Sigh. How many white people did CJ terminate in San Andreas without sparking a race war? The game's set in Africa. It all the zombies were caucasian they'd be screaming 'apartheid supporter' or something. I really do think political correctness itself is one of the most un-PC things around. Hopefully the people who promote it will realise the paradox and shrink down upon themselves and vanish up their own fundaments. I just hope the sheer suction power of their anal retentiveness doesn't take the rest of the universe with it when they go.

[Graham Mitchell]

I don't know which portion of society is crying racism, but I'll add something that may be important to keep in mind.

First off, a medical study was conducted several years ago where they asked African Americans questions about HIV. One of things that was concerning, if not totally shocking, was that something like 1/3 of the people they surveyed thoroughly believed that HIV was created in a lab by the U.S. government for malicious reasons.

The thing is, they tend to think that way based on experience. In the Tuskegee Syphilis study in the 30's, African Americans in Tuskegee Alabama were enrolled in a study and told they were being treated for syphilis when, in actuality, the researchers were just allowing the disease to progress to tertiary syphillis in order to study the pathology of syphilis. They were doing weekly blood draws and lumbar punctures, but never administered antibiotics. They had no intention of treating the patients, at least not immediately.

Now, I guess Umbrella Corp in RE5 goes to Africa and intentionally infects poor villagers. Sounds familiar...

That aspect of it may strike a chord with some people. I'm not saying the cries of racism are justified, and I doubt that a Japanese video game design team knows much about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, but there's a lot of people in the U.S. who do.

Edited for clarity.

[aclbandit]

You aren't killing black people...you're killing black zombies. There's a difference.

Amen to that. When an area is infested with zombies, you kill them. Race is irrelevant.

Also, then, can us white folks be offended by the sheer number of white zombies in RE 0-3 & CV? I detected no racism there. It's simply the logical demographic used in RE games: Caucasians in the American midwest, Africans in Africa.

Because, as we all know, killing zombies is a practice which transcends demographic classification.

[skaar]

Zombies have no rights, we all know this.

[Press_Start]

That aspect of it may strike a chord with some people. I'm not saying the cries of racism are justified, and I doubt that a Japanese video game design team knows much about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, but there's a lot of people in the U.S. who do.

Bear in mind....Capcom is no noob to the American arena as they've gotten a good portion of profits from here for two decades. They may not be familiar with the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, but they shouldn't be no stranger to the "touchy" aspects of the American culture, especially when they planned to release RE5 here from the get-go.

What really worries me about all this is when people like Sharpton and Thompson get a whiff of this and start crying "FOUL!". The last thing I want is the gov't stepping in and scrutinizing every little detail under a microscope, then telling us we can't have this cause too "racist", too "sexist" or what crap the opposition can dream up. It's like I always say, gov't and video games are like alcohol and flamethrowers. Two things that should never go together as idiots get drunk, details are blurred, and we get burned in the end.

[maxlords]

Obviously this game is racist....it's anti-zombie. Zombies SHOULD have rights, else we end up with a society that exploits them, like at the end of Shaun of the Dead.

I propose we petition Congress for a zombie rights bill. I mean...Obama is giving medical aid to CHILDREN for god's sake. It's not like they need it more than the zombies. And while we're at it, equal pay for zombies...why do women deserve equality over zombies?

I'm gonna be a bit radical here and say that it shouldn't even matter what level your zombie decay is at either. I mean....a first stage zombie should obviously have the same rights as a 3rd stage zombie.

I personally am not comfortable with the level of anti-zombie violence in Resident Evil 5. I think that Congress should make Capcom answer for this travesty of racism masquerading as a fun African safari romp.

Aside: I do recognize the racial differences between North American zombies, Asian zombies, European zombies, and African zombies. Capcom has also made a grave error mixing assorted zombie societies. However, if you look at Kershlinger's study of zombal societal stratification (2002) you'll find that the zombies themselves tend to be non-migratory due to ambulatory issues. However, since their societies tend to be extremely homogeonous, most zombies care more about the acquisition of brains than skin color. This means that while there is a major fallacy in Capcom acceding to the wishes of the "uneducated" human populace for RE 5, it is in many ways negated by the opinions of the average zombie.

[kupomogli]

Black people should be proud. They're actually not the minority in a game. They just want something to bitch about.

[Aussie2B]

First off, a medical study was conducted several years ago where they asked African Americans questions about HIV. One of things that was concerning, if not totally shocking, was that something like 1/3 of the people they surveyed thoroughly believed that HIV was created in a lab by the U.S. government for malicious reasons.

I don't think that's wholly related to them being black or having knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, though. I think if you do a survey asking a large group of people, of any race, about something remotely controversial, you'll be amazed what percentage of the people know absolutely jack shit about the subject at hand yet come to all these strong opinions based purely on assumption, speculation, and rumor. This has been proven time and time again by society. To take a current hot topic, there's all this talk about stem cell research this week, and again there is a huge outcry about the supposed destruction of human life if the government funds research. Yet these people still fail to realize that thousands of frozen embryos are thrown into the trash all the time, and they fail to educate themselves on the science of the matter at all. It's way easier in life to just assume things and scream "Dur, they're killing babies!", "Dur, they're killing black people!", "Dur, they're killing dur butter monster!"

[skaar]

Black people should be proud. They're actually not the minority in a game. They just want something to bitch about.

Thread victory!

[Graham Mitchell]

I don't think that's wholly related to them being black or having knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, though. I think if you do a survey asking a large group of people, of any race, about something remotely controversial, you'll be amazed what percentage of the people know absolutely jack shit about the subject at hand yet come to all these strong opinions based purely on assumption, speculation, and rumor. This has been proven time and time again by society. To take a current hot topic, there's all this talk about stem cell research this week, and again there is a huge outcry about the supposed destruction of human life if the government funds research. Yet these people still fail to realize that thousands of frozen embryos are thrown into the trash all the time, and they fail to educate themselves on the science of the matter at all. It's way easier in life to just assume things and scream "Dur, they're killing babies!", "Dur, they're killing black people!", "Dur, they're killing dur butter monster!"

Edit: I didn't read your post properly the first time...

I agree that the backlash to Resident Evil 5 doesn't have anything to do with Tuskegee. I just used it as an example of the paranoia we're dealing with. It's unfortunate that people are dumb enough to jump all over a game they haven't played or attempted to interpret, but people love to criticize things they know nothing about. That's where the RE5 backlash comes from.