RE5 Racism Discussion/Debate

[FlameJuli]

Hiya!
Okay so people are saying that Resident Evil 5 is racist and here are their reasons for saying it;

• It's set in africa
• Chris Refield is White.. (duh)
• Hes killing black zombies

So what are your views on this?

Here are my views,
I think its absoloutly ridiculous, just because the protagonist is white doesnt make it racist. Its about a virus that reanimate dead cells turning people into zombies etc. So it obviously spread around the world.
Resident Evil 4 is set in Spain and you kill Spanish zombies so in reality that makes Resident Evil 4 racist yet no spaniards said anything about it being racist.

Remember racism isnt just black or white. It's about other races so people from other countries and stuff.

 

[El Gofre]

To be honest there's not much to discuss:

• It's set in africa This is the 15th resident evil game, and as far as im aware the previous 14 are all set in "white" countries. That would make their vendetta 14x more prejudiced towards white folk.
• Chris Refield is White.. (duh) He's a recurring, iconic character thats been there from the start. They arent gonna change a trademark charactor for the sake of political correctness
• Hes killing black zombies Again, they've killed "white" zombies for 14 games previous. I could file a complaint about that if i wanted.

So what are your views on this?

So yeah, I agree with you. Its absolutely rediculous. It's a zombie game, they have to kill someone. Game designers are usually concentrated on making the most awesome game possible, petty arguaments like this shouldnt get in their way.

 

[Mitchman]

Wow the world is that sad. I see this is going to happen with GTA4. You know with the character being from eastern europe the people are going to say its a stereotype that all people there speak like that. It acually isn't since I know a lot a people from eastern europe. But yeah wtf RE5 being racist. I cant believe its happening to games now

 

[Klippy]

Hiya!
Okay so people are saying that Resident Evil 5 is racist and here are their reasons for saying it;

• It's set in africa
• Chris Refield is White.. (duh)
• Hes killing black zombies

So what are your views on this?

Here are my views,
I think its absoloutly ridiculous, just because the protagonist is white doesnt make it racist. Its about a virus that reanimate dead cells turning people into zombies etc. So it obviously spread around the world.
Resident Evil 4 is set in Spain and you kill Spanish zombies so in reality that makes Resident Evil 4 racist yet no spaniards said anything about it being racist.

Remember racism isnt just black or white. It's about other races so people from other countries and stuff.

The obvious fact of the matter is that most African American people consider everything against their race an attack on specifically their race. While their reasons are somewhat justified, they were not wronged. Their ancestors were and no person on Earth nowadays owes any other person a thing concerning that subject (slavery in the pre-Civil War era).

While in both games Spaniards and Africans alike are being infected, people will always assume it is a racist motive behind the game. I believe Mercenaries 2 is getting flak for being set in Venezuela. No matter where you go or what you make, someone somewhere will find a way for it to be considered racist.

What... other people don't understand is that attacking verbally/physically, in the same way that whites do/did to Africans, is that they are in turn being racial and prejudice. It's just considered worse when an African is attacked in some way by a white because of the history between the two.

Seeing that Spaniards weren't offended by Resident Evil 4 is easier to understand as the history between Spaniards and whites are not as deeply rooted with violence and racial things as between Africans and whites.

I really don't consider the game to be racial in any way. It's simply a game, meant to entertain and be enjoyed. It isn't a secret way for Capcom to show their anti-African views to the world. Simply another part of a fictional world.

 

[FlameJuli]

Mhm I agree with you Klippy. The thing that gets me is you get ''blacks'' saying the N word to each other but when a white person says it its racist.. and the N word was actually the name of a paint ill shush about that.

I just don't understand it though, It's not the black races starting the trouble about the game being racist it was started by 4 or 5 white people trying to be ''socially and racially correct''.

 

[IgnorantUser]

I doubt the game is racially motivated at all. They probably just wanted another rural area like the small villages in RE4 for a new viral outbreak.

Will that stop people from being offended? No.

Until people stop seeing only race, there will always be racism. This goes for both sides of the argument. Whether it's the "blacks", as you say, FlameJuli, being offended by a video game or whitey getting all pissy over the fact that they're offended, it's just continuing the cruel cycle of misunderstanding.

Everybody is equally wrong in these debates, there's really no point in them.

 

[ASHYLEGS]

Hiya!
Okay so people are saying that Resident Evil 5 is racist and here are their reasons for saying it;

• It's set in africa
• Chris Refield is White.. (duh)
• Hes killing black zombies

So what are your views on this?

Here are my views,
I think its absoloutly ridiculous, just because the protagonist is white doesnt make it racist. Its about a virus that reanimate dead cells turning people into zombies etc. So it obviously spread around the world.
Resident Evil 4 is set in Spain and you kill Spanish zombies so in reality that makes Resident Evil 4 racist yet no spaniards said anything about it being racist.

Remember racism isnt just black or white. It's about other races so people from other countries and stuff.

I'm offended by this game, myself being black. I don't think they should have set it in Africa, what with all the diseases going on there and such. I'm black, but I would still be offended by it even if I wasn't black. Would it be the same way if there was a black protagonist killing white zombies? Most likely so. It goes for any given race. We would all be offended because of our pride and loyalty to our race. Most people don't understand the struggle that occurs in Africa. And now, they taunt them by making a "zombie shooting game" dedicated to killing the characters int he game. It's not right, in my opinion.

 

[Stalin Malone]

It's not racist it's true. Gotta keep the starving hordes out with barbed wire.

 

[TurtleKing]

I don't think it's racist. Just an overreaction to the current government. It'll be better when we have a democrat in office :).

 

[Zeikku™]

set in africa? no wonder the zombies are black, thats where they are from, it's not racist, it's just common sence, just because the main character is white it doesn't make it racist...
lets not forget..
they are zombies...
not real people...
maybe if they were people...it would make things more....interesting...if thats the right word =/

 

[FlameJuli]

I'm offended by this game, myself being black. I don't think they should have set it in Africa, what with all the diseases going on there and such. I'm black, but I would still be offended by it even if I wasn't black. Would it be the same way if there was a black protagonist killing white zombies? Most likely so. It goes for any given race. We would all be offended because of our pride and loyalty to our race. Most people don't understand the struggle that occurs in Africa. And now, they taunt them by making a "zombie shooting game" dedicated to killing the characters int he game. It's not right, in my opinion.

I understand about the black pride, but it's a game it's not real, when GTA San Andreas came out was there anything about racism? nope although it was working on the stereotypical view of black americans being gangsters.

Just because the game has black people in it, and that no black person was in the dev team does that make the Japanese racist? No it doesn't. People play games for well the game, you could say the makers of Pokemon is racist because there arent any black people in it.

Resident Evil is a fun game that EVERYONE loves, Chris Redfield (the protagonist of the game) is not Racially motivated to kill black zombies is he? no hes trying to survive, the viruse just happens to be in Africa. The only way we can find out more about his reasons and the Dev's reasons that its set in africa is to play the game.

 

[Niwa]

Mhm I agree with you Klippy. The thing that gets me is you get ''blacks'' saying the N word to each other but when a white person says it its racist.. and the N word was actually the name of a paint ill shush about that.

I just don't understand it though, It's not the black races starting the trouble about the game being racist it was started by 4 or 5 white people trying to be ''socially and racially correct''.

I loved how all "blacks" were taken in as a group in being the same. I, myself, am half African (Which is of course, black) the group of people I hang out with are prominently black as well. But we do not act in such a manner when a white person come's around saying the N word, whether it ends with "ER" and/or "A", the only time it's even considered disrespectful is when it is used in a bad way, such as during an arguement or something of the sort. When a white person come's around and is like "What's up N---a's!" or anything like that but in a friendley manner, he's not accused of being racist or anything. Please don't counter with "But he's most likely a friend", of course that may be true, but not in some cases. The same way most black and latino friend's meet each other for the first time and are basically like "Sup N---a", there isn't any problem with a white person saying it be it friend or stranger, girl or boy. Before you say that I probabley don't live in a very racial zone, please do note that I live in Florida which is way deep in the south of North America, part of the section that is imagined as being very racist.

I'm offended by this game, myself being black. I don't think they should have set it in Africa, what with all the diseases going on there and such. I'm black, but I would still be offended by it even if I wasn't black. Would it be the same way if there was a black protagonist killing white zombies? Most likely so. It goes for any given race. We would all be offended because of our pride and loyalty to our race. Most people don't understand the struggle that occurs in Africa. And now, they taunt them by making a "zombie shooting game" dedicated to killing the characters int he game. It's not right, in my opinion.

I'm offended by what you just said of Africa. I've been to Africa last year to spend some time with family and the such, trust me as I say, Africa isn't nearly as it is depichted in the media of the U.S., I'm not denying such thing's as diseases and what not are non-existant, but there Africa is a very up to date society whether it be technology or health. No one, especially not Japanese men making a game from a series that has lasted how many years? Based on what people? Who even know's if they are really white, that's the hardest thing I have yet to even know. This is a Japanese game made by Japanse people, these people could very well be Japanese themselves and by these people I mean the main character's.. No one is targeting African's specifically, a change of set is what they are most likely going for such as the transitions from RE:3 to RE:4, let's get out of the city and into the jungle.