Resident Evil 5 Trailer Racist?
Resident Evil 5We have no idea when Resident Evil 5 will descend upon us, but unfortunately, Capcom is already suffering from complaints. The game's trailer recently came to light, and while most gamers were looking at it and determining quality, others were examining it from a political standpoint.
A blog dedicated to African-American females, Black Looks, has called the Resident Evil 5 trailer "problematic on so many levels."
"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."
Now, while we understand the complaint - and we hear this blog isn't the only source speaking out - there is the possibility that Capcom isn't racist, and that they simply placed the game's setting in Africa. ...in Africa, if we're not mistaken, there are African-American individuals. To jump ahead in the story, if they're all getting infected by whatever this zombie virus is, it would stand to reason there'd be a lot of black zombies. Chris Redfield being white doesn't seem relevant, as he has been white since the start of the series, and up until now, we have difficulty remembering even a single African-American undead opponent for Chris. In other words, the heroes in Resident Evil have been mowing down white zombies for over a decade.
But we do understand the complaint. It'll be interesting to see how Capcom responds to it.
Related Game(s): Resident Evil 5
8/1/2007 Ben Dutka
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