The trailer has only been out for a couple weeks, but already Resident Evil 5 is catching some major heat for being racist. You can catch the trailer here if you haven’t seen it yet.
Black Looks, a blog devoted to African women, has called the game’s plot into question.
The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity…
This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.
I’m not going to say they’re wrong here. The trailer can definitely be construed that way. I don’t think Capcom had any intentions of racism in the game. I think they were trying to set the game in Africa this go-around. That’s just my 2 cents, but I can see where Black Looks is coming from. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Where were the critics when we were shooting Mexicans in GRAW and R6Vegas?
What about the Hispanics in RE4? Nobody said shit about that because apparently it’s ok to kill us, but God forbid the bad guys be black. They should’ve made RE5 take place in the Middle East, then no one would complain about killing arabs.
We should expect a statement from a Covenant Prophet any day now about Halo 3. People will do anything for a little bit of press.
Good point nostars.
I also want to rebut one statement made on Black Looks. The author states the game is being marketed to “children and young adults.” This game will no doubt be rated M, which means you must be 18 to buy the game. Being the case, the game is being marketed to older teens and those I would consider adults.
I would really like to hear a comment from one of our african american readers and see their perspective.
I think it’s a big misunderstanding. I think a game based in Africa would be a great thing, but it’s obvious that the majority of the zombies would be black. Drunk pandas you raised a great point with the “m” rating. It’s encouraging hatred of zombies, not black people. The quick fix: changing the main character to a black man as well.
jftheophilus – I think changing the main character would introduce too much change in the game/series. We’ve been playing as Chis Redfield since the inception of the game, and changing him in this game would put too much of a twist on a great series.
I completely agree with you that it’s encouraging hatred of zombies and not African people. And we should all hate zombies. Zombies have done way too much to destroy the world as it is.
I dont understand why all these people find all these reasons to sue people. I mean look at all the other Resident Evils, I dont think you killed even 1 black guy. So get over it. It’s about killing Zombies, not black people. But if thats what you really wanna do, go buy Postal 2. lol
well im a black guy and when i saw the trailer i said “hey havent we been killed enough” but then i started thinkin in all the resident evil games the only ppl not to be zombies are asain ppl i think capcom is secretly showing us that they hate everyone but themselves and yes even though racoon city is in japan all the zombies where caucasian
Yugo12, Raccoon City isn’t in Japan, it’s in the US. But you’re right about there being no Asians in any of the games. Maybe RE6 will take place in China or another Asian country.
About the whole racist thing, I just think it’s some oversensitive BS. Last time I checked, Black people do(think italics) live in Africa. Just like in RE4 we killed Spanish when in Spain. People need to just calm down and think before posting stupid things on teh interwebz.
i dunno some one told me racoon city is supposed to be a place in japan i guess why i was surprised when i heard because i thought i didnt know
oh yea and chris even if they did had a resident evil 6 in china that would really make themm seem racicest because heh heh we all know waht the the japanese ppl did to china in ww2 heh heh heh ………………………………………… china got pwned no offense….. but if they did a resident evil game with japanese zombies only .. then and only then can they not be called racist
oh my fucking god…its a game set in haiti number one…where the idea of zombies began, number two its a fucking game and i personaly think that if our small childeren play it it will teach them NOT TO GO TO WHERE EVER THE DAMN GAME IT SET!!!!
zombies dont know race, nore do they know anything really…black zombies dont eat living white people only…they eat all people, and personaly im glad they brought a different fucking race into the series, i mean com on people. if a black person get offended think about this…its a JAPANESE made game, not american or a WHITE game. i know for a fact that this is not a raceist game, and that anyone who takes it that way needs to get the 12 inch tampon out of their ass and give it a rest. fuck you dumb fucks who made a political uproar over a game… race is what it is…black white purple green what the fuck dose it matter the major point is that its a game and on top of that a ZOMBIE game, every race is effected and its about time they showed it
how could it be racist? have you ever noticed in most resident evil games you only see white people? the game takes place in haiti in africa! how many whites do you see in f-in africa!?! people (all races) are to up tight why are we like that????? if the game was something with a title like “super kkk 4″ then i might be a little worried