The Color of a Game; A Commentary on Resident Evil
I am fully aware that we live in an age — and country — that demands that people walk on egg shells when it comes to communicating with other people. I also realize that no matter what you say, there is probably someone, someplace that could take offense to it.
Enter the trailer for Capcom’s upcoming installment of the zombie shoot ‘em up series, Resident Evil 5.
Even though RE5 isn’t scheduled for a Wii release, the franchise is still a part of every Nintendo gamer’s canon of games, especially considering the Wii’s nearly flawless port of Resident Evil 4
Since the trailer’s release at E3 ‘07, video game and socio-political pundits have been in arms over the racist overtones in the trailer. In many ways, those crying “racism” remind me of the very same torch and pitchfork mobs found in RE4. Well, if they are the same manipulated mobs, then I will gladly take the part of RE5’s Chris Redfield.
Lock and load, baby.
Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal was one of the first to voice his uneasiness about the trailer. Soon, everyone was crying wolf at RE5, including the outspoken X-Play co-host Adam Sessler in his soapbox web special. However, I applaud writers like Gameworld Network’s Brian Allen, who defended Capcom and RE5.
I have watched the trailer many times, and enjoyed it each time. Even though it looks exactly like RE4 — except instead of Spaniards, they are Africans — it made my heart race with the thought of having an entire village assault baring down on me. All the time, you, as the gamer, are fully-aware that you only have one clip of bullets for your handgun and two shotgun shells. Ah, how I love the new age of Resident Evil games.
Of course, now I must ask myself the question as to whether or not I am a racist because I enjoyed the trailer. I also enjoyed Black Hawk Down and Schindler’s List. Maybe I am a racist after all. Or maybe, just maybe, I can take a form of media entertainment for exactly what it is: entertainment.
Capcom (a Japanese company) isn’t making a game for white Americans to play so that they can expel the fears that they have towards “the black man” by mowing down mindless legions of them. I say mindless, but if they are anything like the Spaniards in RE4, they will be anything but mindless. Just thinking about it makes me conjure up feelings of how I longed for rows of dumb zombies in previous games of the series. Sorry, for the digression. I’ll get back to my point now - you can’t honestly believe that Capcom’s goal was to produce racist propaganda.
Ok, then it was Capcom who, instead of being out-right racist, was instead insensitive. How dare Capcom show African villagers in an African village. Hell, take the image of Chris Redfield walking through the village, replace him with *insert famous white celebrity here* and you have a common occurrence on television.
Sure, Brad Pitt doesn’t shoot the villagers, but then again, the villagers don’t become zombie-like and attack Pitt, either.
People, and Americans in general, need to stop making race such a large issue. Don’t people realize that every time we point out that a black man is running for president, or how a black coach won the SuperBowl, or that February is Black History month, that we are actually drawing even more of a racial distinction based on our cultural differences? In America, a country of mixed cultures, shouldn’t we just except people for who they are? If that is in fact the case, then stop making it news every time a person of another race does something special.
If we want to progress beyond race, we have to stop making race an issue. Good or bad; stop it. So what if Indianapolis Colts’ coach Tony Dungy is the first black man to win the Superbowl? If we spotlight it, all we do is magnify the issue that he has racial and cultural differences that set him apart from white caucasians.
Those who are attacking RE5 from within the industry are also those that have otherwise defended it, often saying that games like Grand Theft Auto, Postal and Mass Effect have no damaging effects on the minds of gamers. Yet, they seem to think that RE5 will be different. RE5 will somehow heighten a player’s desensitization to cultural differences. It will fuel a gamer’s disrespect for “different” people.
While we’re on the subject, let’s focus on the racial issues found in a few other games. How about the critically-acclaimed Gears of War. I mean, come on, look at how stereotypical the character, Cole Train, is. Can he fit the stereotype of urban black man any more than he already does? How about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? Do I even need to remind people of the terrifyingly negative images portrayed by the African American protagonist as he waged crimes all over the cityscape?
Wake up, people.
RE5 is just a game — just like those previously listed — and is not a commentary on racial issues, nor is it a lesson on insensitivity for other races. The moment we, as gamers, start attacking games, is when Jack Thompson and the other pinheads start winning. Just pick up the controller and play the game.
If, after you are finished, you find the game morally reprehensible, then maybe you should take a long vacation and relax for a while. Might I suggest, Africa?
Tags: Adam Sessler, Capcom, E3, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto, N'Gai, racism, Resident Evil 4 5, SuperBowl
Lead Story | 
Timothy W. Young | April 22, 2008
By Bunkai, April 22, 2008 @ 12:35 pm
I know how to correct the obvious racism…
Instead of having Ben Affleck shooting up an African village full of natives-turn-zombie, let’s change the game so that Wesley Snipes is running around shooting up a city full of White vampires…. *shrug*
Or, better yet… make it Chris Rock, and make it a Palm Springs golf course inhabited by thousands of overweight, retired, white, liberal, civil rights lawyers.
Now THAT would be a game I could sink my teeth in to!!!
/end sarcasm
“If we want to stop making race an issue, then just stop making race an issue. Good or bad, stop it.”
A-f’ing-MEN
By Good Except, April 22, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Marcus Fenix is black??????????
good article but last i checked he is definitely white, or at least white-ish…definitely not black though.
By Lukatoll, April 23, 2008 @ 1:12 am
Nice post tim!
Just remember not to choose 3 categories next time
By Lukatoll, April 23, 2008 @ 1:19 am
oh yea, i just caught that too.
Marcus Fenix isn’t black.
By Chris Plante, April 23, 2008 @ 7:22 am
“Or maybe, just maybe, I can take a form of media entertainment for exactly what it is: entertainment.”
Does that same excuse work for people who watch bum fights, death porn, and other illegal pornography on the internet? They’re just enjoying it as entertainment, not for the bad stuff that might be in it?
I know, that’s an extreme argument, but so are things like: “If we want to stop making race an issue, then just stop making race an issue. Good or bad, stop it.”
They’re both based on fallacy, and seem to say, “since we don’t like the issue, the let’s bury it.” Whether you agree with Mr. Croal about RE5 being racist or not is trvial to me. What you should, and I hope you will, agree is that race is not a buriable issue. It’s something we must discuss and confront to bet ourselves, and our passion, games. Is it so wrong that he brought up what most of us have been too afraid to discuss?
As for the just a game statement, I’m still shocked gamers have such little confidence in what they enjoy. Film can be cinema, fiction can be literature - why shouldn’t we hold games up to artistic and social standards?
By John, April 23, 2008 @ 9:18 am
I appreciate your argument, but I really think there’s no escaping the fact that the trailer is racist.
I know full well the Japanese are coming from a completely different cultural background, but then so am I; I’m not American. Ok, I’m European, but I was raised without the racial hang-ups that are prevalent in the US today. But, they’re prevalent in the US for a reason, and Capcom needs to have some awareness of that if they’re going to deal in the US market.
I, too, am hugely excited by the idea of taking on an entire village of zombies in an improved version of RE:4, one of my favourite games of all time. I think setting the game in Africa is a brilliant idea. However, the sight of a lone white man gunning down hundreds of black people (regardless of their ‘condition’) is too close to the bone. And as for your other examples, I agree fully, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
And Bunkai, the reality is that Wesley Snipes gunning down a bunch of white vampires doesn’t carry the racist connotations this does. They’re completely different. To paraphrase comments made elsewhere, I can understand if you don’t feel it’s as bad as some make out, but if you don’t see it as racist at all? That’s worrying.
By Timothy W. Young, April 23, 2008 @ 10:44 am
Oops, got Marcus Fenix and another toon mixed up. Editing for the mistake. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
/hits self on the head with a lead pipe.
But to get on topic:
A white man shooting a black man is not racist, nor a white man shooting a hundred black men. Racism is a state of mind that breeds an act of hate. Without the state of mind and malicious intent, it can’t be racist. It is only a violent and horrific act.
Sorry, but that’s the truth unless Capcom has made Redfield into an actual racist through virtue of the narration.
DEFINITION
Main Entry: rac·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm also -ˌshi-\
Function: noun
Date: 1933
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
By Bunkai, April 23, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
“And Bunkai, the reality is that Wesley Snipes gunning down a bunch of white vampires doesn’t carry the racist connotations this does. They’re completely different.”
Of course they’re different… everyone knows that as long as you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing to a white person, it can’t be considered racism. I mean, after all, they’re WHITE… right?
That trailer looks like self-defense to me. Regardless of racial point of view, setting, or anything else, if a mob of people are coming to kill me, I’m gonna do what I can to give them all a dirt nap… black, white, yellow, green, or purple… makes no difference when it comes to self-preservation. If you say that you wouldn’t… you’re lieing.
And if you’re wanting to talk about setting, it seems a logical setting to me. Remeber H.I.V. and Ebola? Remember their birthplace? How about you take a look at this link (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no4/klugman.htm) and then try to tell me that a remote African village isn’t a good place to set a story about such a wild disease outbreak. Where would make more historical and scientific sense to set such a story?
By John, April 23, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
“everyone knows that as long as you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing to a white person, it can’t be considered racism. I mean, after all, they’re WHITE… right?”
Whoa, let’s not even go near the idea that white people are being persecuted here. As for the idea that self-preservation precludes any racist intent…. this is a video game. I don’t see myself fending off a hundred zombies anytime soon.
We’re using different criteria for our analysis of the trailer here. I see that trailer and it uses racist imagery that goes back to Joseph Conrad.
And, importantly, I want to play this game. I don’t think it should be cancelled, or Capcom should be made to change the setting. Subtle differences in approach can make all the difference here. I think that you guys are making rational arguments, and I’m happy to partake in a mature discussion on this, but I do feel that Capcom will need to be more sophisticated with this.
Bunkai, that is an interesting link, and it does reinforce the fact the setting is a good idea. I hope that the game shows the dehumanizing effect of the infection to give us context. The trailer does not do that, and with no context, I see how it would be offensive.
This is unlike the furore over the recent Vogue cover with LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen for example. I disagreed with people that felt that cover was racist, because we all have context. People seeing that cover as an example of playing on the fear of ‘black men taking white women’ have issues of their own. I think this trailer is different, and genuinely has problems.
By Mike, April 24, 2008 @ 1:07 am
Pff, sensitivity issues. I’m constantly around a diverse group of people, nothing really fazes me anymore. If I care about it, I feel that I’m caring too much entirely (does that make sense?)
At some point, we have to look back in history (being depicted in different mediums) and accept that humanity has had a racist past, then FINALLY open an adult dialogue about it. Every single “ethnic” person I’ve met (which is the majority in Milwaukee,) agrees.
I’m not saying that this game really has anything to do with a racist piece of history in any way. Rather, finding a problem with it is nothing but close-minded. Maybe our parents taught us to find differences in objects too much? After all, everyone has their personal differences, so why not celebrate the similarities?
Great article, Tim! I hope this game comes to Wii. I actually just played 6 hours of RE4 today on Wii.