Racism in Resident Evil 5: a Halfrican's take.

Sorry for the latency in posting, been working nights lately, doesn't leave much time for thought.
That's why this post is coming at 3:30am on Thursday morning.
BUT...I PRESS ON!!!

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First, watch this video. It's the Resident Evil 5 trailer from last year. It's the video referenced in most of the articles to follow.

Now, let me draw your attention to this article (which links to an article with a video attached) and this one too, and finally this one. Give'em a look. (And once again Kotaku, my humblest thanks for giving me stuff to read. Where I work right now, the firewall filters "games" as a meta subject, so only some news sites get through. Word to you.)

I'm only half black, half white. While I joke this gives me no racial leverage whatsoever, I feel very much ingrained with certain desires to understand my race. This issue of Resident Evil 5 being a racist game has given me a chance to look towards my representation of myself as a game designer. I don't really think I run the risk of being considered more one color or another depending on my blog here, but maybe in some peoples eyes I do. The point of the blog though, is RE:5 purpotraying racist imagery? More importantly, are they doing it on purpose?

This is an excellent article to start with. It's Dyske Suematsu's take on Japanese people and their interactions with other races. The Japanese people seem to have the magnifying glass on their race in two ways: One as xenophobic, homogenous people who tend to overlook the fact something they do may come off as PC towards other races and Two, as people trying to be fashionably/interculturally in touch for various societal reasons. This would lend a hand in explaining why RE:5 could get green lit by a Japanese company, when an American company would open the game with Chris Redfield saying "I'm in a totally non-demoninational country with people speaking a language that can't be tied to any region and skin that's just BARELY off-white let's ROCK!"

The setting of RE5 looks, to me, to be genuinely terrifying. I applaud Capcom for setting the game in a society where the very idea of the zombie may have originated from. It's risky, but it's good. The people have dark skin, it's true. The teaser video linked to in that article isn't exactly flattering either, no. But it's good. RE5 looks horrific. I know as a charcter Chris will take NO pleasure in what he has to do to survive, and to prevent the spread of this epidemic to the rest of the world. But from the videos, pictures and the like...there's no way to tell unless you know the series at least a LITTLE. And sadly, a lot of powerful people don't.

The subtext of the RE5 screens is NOT the point. Someone with the eye of the politician and activist will see a militant white man killing evil black people, who are all evil because they are black. They overlook the story of the game, and sadly they always will. There's a politician right now INSISTING there's a rape scene in GTAIV that awards points. There is no such scene in GTAIV. The inhabitants of RE5 are not inherently evil. I don't know what parasite or virus is infecting them, but if it's anything like Las Plagas infected ganados from RE4, they're animated puppets with bugs in their brains from some evil corporation. Oh, and hardly anyone raised a tiff when Leon went to Spain to kill half the population. In the everlasting war against political incorrectness, don't pick your battles. If it messes with your race, make sure youre there when it messes with someone elses, or don't fight at all.

Moving on, the game took criticism for this portrayal, but did they change their tune? NOPE. Thank goodness. The game moves on, unhindered by the ranting and raving of an upset American audience. Some folks in Japan may have raised cain, but I think that when the game comes to Capcom USA, there maybe somes serious problems in store for the company, press wise. I'm not too worried about it, really. I think the initial issues will die down or float on by but there will the the one or two people who think the game needs banning/boycotting. I'm going to preorder a copy.

Breaking it down:

Should Capcom censor the game: No. There's nothing to censor.

Should they avoid this subject matter: No. The Resident Evil series has always been about the abuse of power, corruption of science and the manipulation through destruction of the HUMAN RACE.

Should America ban the game: Goodness no. If we ban this game, Saint's Row 2 better get cancelled and we better never see another GTA.

Should politicians and activists read and investigate before speaking thier mouths off: Yes. Or they risk looking like mis/uninformed idiots.

If I were to summarize the opinions of many, in a way I think is appropriate: Violence against one is unacceptable. Violence against many is equality. And that's ridiculous.

RE5 is the continuation of my 2nd favorite series in videogames. If I was a designer on the game, however, I would make sure during gameplay to let people see the other side of the coin BEFORE showing them the hell that Chris is descended into. Show them a village where there's life, love, happiness...or even one where there's paranoia, fear, panic...but make sure before we see the enemies as the monsters they become, we see them first as the humans they were.

-Joe

PS: Take a look at the new trailer. The people are portrayed as the monsters they've become, the abominations of Umbrella Corps. They've taken on a less human look, and as a result I think this magically makes everything okay. The magnificent double standard strikes again, I bet.