I as a man of color played resident evil 4 set in Spain. Which included gunning down hundreds of spaniards.Where was your critic then.

Posted by: k. bodden at July 31, 2007 9:01 AM

A white man should never be seen, at least in popular culture mediums, shooting hordes of indiscriminate blacks because they have actually done it before.

Posted by: dwalker at July 31, 2007 2:27 PM

As a person of latin descent, I didn't give pause to shooting up the gerudos in RE4. Seriously, the game is frank about the villagers equally being the victims of an evil corporation and its executives.

Besides, it's horror- OF COURSE it mirrors and magnifies our topical fears. Otherwise, it wouldn't be more than suspenseful, would it?

Posted by: MikeD at July 31, 2007 4:13 PM

If Chris Redfield was black, would Africa still be an appropriate setting for Resident Evil 5? I understand why RE5 would set off alarms; there have been several instances of racial stereotyping in video games over the years, but the best way to counter such stereotypes is to get more people of color to design and develop games.

Posted by: r.o.g.h.a at July 31, 2007 4:42 PM

I think the graphics are great and if you can get over yourself and see that it's just a video game. Another in a long storyboard of a series. So just relax and enjoy the ride.

Posted by: edh at July 31, 2007 5:27 PM

I think this is the bigger issue, and one that's going to become a serious problem for video games going forth: Many of these games, including RE5, are being made in ethnically homogenous Japan, where concepts of race are hugely different from those in America. On some level, I think Japanese developers simply don't understand how potentially flammable these kinds of scenarios could become, let alone some of the even more blatant stereotyping often found in Japanese games (think Barrett's penchant for Ebonics in FF7, just for starters.) Not that Western developers don't toy with racial stereotyping as well (GTA: San Andreas), but the frequency and seeming obliviousness of racial caricature in Japanese-developed games could become a truly messy situation.

Been watching my brother play Odin Sphere, getting very jealous. Love your work, Ms. Ruberg.

Posted by: ddb4 at July 31, 2007 7:54 PM

Listen each group of people have the innate right to determine how they are viewed in whatever media form. If Spanish speaking people of European descent didn't make a fuss about a white guy of European descent gunning down a town full of their people then that is on them.

I think that Resident Evil 5 is indication of what happens when there are few black people in the game industry and in the decision making process. The fact that no one from the developmental stage to now even thought that having a white male run around shooting black Africans zombie or not might have some problematic connotations especially if they plan to heavily market and sell the game in the US shows an utter lack of sensitivity and complete naivete to not even ask the question and have a discussion.

Oh, and playing the 'what if' game and switching around races is a moot point because the racial history and dynamic between races are not the same.

Posted by: GO14 at August 1, 2007 8:42 AM

There have been 11 Resident Evil games of you shooting primarily white zombies, 12 if you count RE4 which I’m sure the author; would since they were obviously Spaniards in Europe (which I’m sure they’d label hispanic in their ignorance.)

In the end, it’s a videogame series about virus outbreaks turning people into monsters. Africa would be a logical choice of setting for a story in this series. In Africa there are Africans. And yes, in the game the main character is Caucasian…because Chris Redfield was one of the main characters of the first Resident Evil game and has not been seen since Resident Evil: Code Veronica (released in 2000).

I would go so far as to saying that the author of this blog entry should make a formal apology for BEING racist. It is racism when one makes baseless alarmist claims of racism where none exists. When someone does this, they simply make clear their own ignorance.

To make the implication (which this blog apparently is) that a Caucasian individual should never be shown defending himself against Africans because of a different skin color, is rather bigoted and short sighted in of itself, in my opinion. It is just as racist to say a group should be exclusively excluded due to the color of their skin, and does no service to anyone.

Posted by: sky at August 1, 2007 10:27 AM

This article misses the mark by so much it should be pulled.

A flagging journalist trying to improve their career?

Posted by: Russ at August 1, 2007 10:29 AM

I genuinely feel that a combination of misinformation, 'gun jumping' and hysteria will make this out to be a much larger problem than it ACTUALLY is.

I am black, I was born in Ethiopia and moved to Canada when I was 3 years old. My entire life I have never been the target of racism, at least to my knowledge. This is for two reasons I think.

1. Many tip toe around me as if pretending my skin is -not- darker than theirs will prevent my yelling indignation.

2. I just am -not- offended as easily as many people are. I don't jump the gun and assume advertisements, movies or yes, video games are out to get me and portray my 'race' (I hate calling it that) negatively.

About this trailer - if you played Re4, you would notice a very similar setting. You start off in a rural town in Spain, where people are dingy and dirty looking with an eerie spooky feeling (much like the beginning of this trailer) you ASSUME that they are not 'Zombies' (well they actually aren't, they are not undead, they are infected with a virus and have a sort of mind control effect on them) but in reality, they are infected from the start, and it is only when they learn about your presence and desire to -thwart- them do they start attacking you. It could just as easily (or considering the past cases, be more likely) that this is the exact same situation here. And odds are, you're going to have some 'black' help bringing down these 'zombies'!

If anything, this game may even bring to light the state of Africa, it may bring more awareness to all the problems that are currently running rampant in my 'motherland' and awareness is never a bad thing.

The thing that really gets to me is all these people being ridiculously defensive -for- me and my 'people'. You are part of the problem. I cannot believe that people do not realize that they are widening the gap between Africans and the rest of the world when they try ever so hard to 'respect our differences' like in this situation. I WANT an RE game in Africa; it's unique, it's ballsy and it's refreshing. People getting offended over this are IMMEDIATELY noticing the fact that these people are black and IMMEDIATELY assuming that black people should be exempt from all sorts of negative representations (such as the T virus). Stop it. Please, everyone who is trying to protect the black image... stop it. You are doing a lot more harm than help, and what we really need is supreme and complete equality - and that means letting black people be T-Virus infected crazed monsters too.

Posted by: Annon at August 1, 2007 10:32 AM

Your blog has failed.
Where were you in past RE games?

Are you saying you can't make movies/games set in Africa anymore.

How about GTA:San Andreas where you play as a black man shooting down hordes of innocent whites?

Guess you don't do much research.

Find some real news.

Posted by: Brian G. at August 1, 2007 11:05 AM

You know what would go a long way towards eliminating racism? People not putting so much fucking attention on everyone's race. Isn't that the key really?

Posted by: Anonymous at August 1, 2007 11:07 AM

Thank you for keeping racism alive. If it wasn't for people like you stretching and reaching for connections like this, the rest of the country might have put the idea of color behind us and look at this as just a video game. But you keep it alive and well, without people like you, the NAACP might not be needed any more ,they can't exist without racism, can they? So it has to be kept in the minds of the people from somewhere right?

I can't wait until your next article calling for the removal of all pool tables in the country because we can't have a game where a White ball pushes all the colored balls off the Green Earth table... can we?

Posted by: Joe Nobody at August 1, 2007 11:10 AM

I think that if you really, really want to nitpick the depiction of a white soldier shooting African zombies, the issue shouldn't be racism.

The issues should be imperialism and hegemony. Why is it America's job to help Africa with its zombie problem? Why does America have to play world police?

I'm not saying that I have that issue with this game. What I am saying is, if you really want to get nit-picky, but still at least take issue with something that's, I don't know, relevant to what's going on in the world today? That is the issue you would take.

Never mind the fact that the game is Japanese, and Japan's not fighting a war in Iraq -- that would be us. But I think you can see the point.

Posted by: Dan Hiester at August 1, 2007 11:10 AM

All races should have an equal opportunity to be zombies. Not allowing blacks to be zombies is racism

Posted by: ThinkForAChange at August 1, 2007 11:24 AM

This might be the single stupidest blog post masquerading as sophistication on the entire intarwebz.

No, really. I mean, can you feel the pseudo-intellectualism emanating in waves from the article?

"When it comes to a piece of pop culture like Resident Evil though, we have to consider the possibility that our interest in the supernatural is actually mirroring our anxieties about real-life problems."

Suprisingly, or perhaps not, this deep analysis only comes out of the pocket when blackpeople/gaypeople/fashionable group of victims are involved. I'd like to see your analysis of a game like Dead Rising, with its fears of Americans and white culture, or maybe something like GTA San Andreas, with its glorification of black gangster culture in the US? Hypocrisy much?

"But looking again at the trailer, I see a different message: it’s not just that these zombies are black, but that the uninfected black villagers are zombie-like too."

You see whatever damn message you want to see apparently. RE3 gave of the same vibes about white people, and I'll be damned if you thought about that one for more than 3 seconds.

Ultimately the problem isn't even that you're being hypocritical in the application of your own analysis. The analysis itself is wrong, AND it is hypocritically applied.

Posted by: Unmeel Banerjea at August 1, 2007 11:25 AM

I'm Chaldean. You, and probably most of your readers have no idea what that means, but my family before me came over to the U.S. from Iraq.

Why does this matter?

Because trivial bullshit like talking about how Resident Evil 5 is just a front for racist white people is taken so seriously when any jackass can spout the term "towel-head" or "camel jockey" or the other 9,000 insults used since 9/11 to hate against me and my fellow Arabs. It's hypocrisy by the whole U.S.

Don't make fun of the blacks.

Don't make fun of the Jews.

Don't make fun of any nationality because it's politically incorrect.

But you can totally rip into those damn "sand niggers" huh?

Posted by: Gino Elias at August 1, 2007 11:32 AM

I'm sorry, this may be off point, but,

1.resident evil is about the insane paranoia of corporations and capitalists trying to gain control of the world using biological weapons.

2.The developers of this game is a man named Jun Takeuchi. He is japanese, not caucasian.

3.The protagonists of these games are all white. You cant change that unless new characters are introduced. (and they probably will.)

4.In RE you can get bitten a million times, you dont get infected, as long as you have some "green herb":-)

5.If the pixel colors in this fictional video game meant for adults disturbs you, download a new skin, i'm sure mods will show up. (though that may be a copyright violation!)

Thank You! Have a Nice Day!

Posted by: The Boy at August 1, 2007 11:49 AM

I can list games all day where hundreds of people of a particular ethnicity were dispatched by someone of anether race and nobody said a damn thing. Here's some advice, stop looking for hidden racism in everything and slap the person who showed you this because they and you are, simply.

Posted by: frageelay at August 1, 2007 11:55 AM

You know what I seen when I watched that trailer- some guy killing other people who were infected with a parasite/virus. I didnt see white vs black situation or some kind of subtle race war.

The world today has become so immensely PC its verging on ridiculous. Surely excluding a certain race from something is racism? I hear people saying about equality, well true equality means you take the good parts and the bad parts.

I think this situation is a simple case of- your damned if you do, your damned if you dont.

I still dont see any hint of racism in the trailer.

Posted by: ihave yourlemons at August 1, 2007 11:56 AM

It takes a brave journalist to raise the racism alarm and cry foul on the video game industry based on zero research. Major respect for bucking the trend of journalists making the career change to gossip-monger prostitution, poking the fires of public hysteria in exchange for hopefully-increased readership. Of course, I guess you work for the Village Voice, so what can you do.

It's likely if not confirmed that the game takes place in Haiti, for one thing. Not that it matters, since when it comes to racial alarmism one black guy is just as good as another, ironically enough.

The larger issue missed -- and the one that makes me wonder if and why you get paid for your writing -- is that zombies originated in black Caribbean culture. Therefore, the most likely setting for a zombie thriller would be a black culture, and if anything the overwhelming majority of zombies portrayed as white in movies and games is a spin on this origin. There's such a legacy of white zombism -- much of it owing its roots to "Night of the Living Dead", where a black man struggles against hordes of nearly all-white zombies as well as a cowardly, bald white man in office attire -- that it's amazing that even in profiteering a journalist would make the argument that suddenly zombies could be representative of white fear of black contamination.

Would there be as much spin here if the protagonist was black? You could certainly draw the same grasping-at-straws conclusions (black American fearfully fighting off his own African ancestry, which to this day continues to be a mark against him in assimilating into white American culture? Who knows?) but there would be no shock value to be garnered there, so I doubt you'd waste your time waxing intellectual on the idea.

Posted by: Jared Thomas, Editor of N-Philes.com at August 1, 2007 12:12 PM

While we're speculating the ridiculous, I suspect this game to be one big campaign against african tourism! The message? If you go to Africa, you have two options: Become a zombie or shoot black people. Those of us that are lucky will just get malaria or AIDS.

Posted by: Alex at August 1, 2007 12:35 PM

Fine, I will be fine if they do this:

Intro of the game shows exactly what is in the trailer, but a message is displayed saying that Oh Well, Everyone didn't want us to help the infection in Africa, then a helicopter comes picks up Chris and takes him to Japan where the actual game really starts.

Posted by: Trivialnight at August 1, 2007 12:45 PM

it's set in Haiti not africa. guess another blog entry can be quickly written about how it's full of voodoo sterotypes now.

Posted by: zombie-equality at August 1, 2007 12:59 PM

"White Man Shoots Black Zombies"

the key words here being man, shoots, and zombies!!!!!

I feel dumber for having read this article. WTF is wrong with ppl???

Posted by: yohon at August 1, 2007 1:02 PM

This game is meant for adults. It is not meant for children, even though irresponsible parents will aid the game in finding its way into their chilrens' hands, no doubt.

Adults who already have a racist "disposition" will relish the fact that they're killing Africans. I'd rather have them do it in a video game than real life. They're probably spineless bastards anyhow, so giving them the minor "satisfaction" will probably remove the slightest temptations. I sure hope so, at least.

Adults who are not racist, and are intelligent enough to acknowledge the setting and characters, will simply enjoy the game for what it is -- another RE game.

I think most of us commenting here are concerned, but for me personally, I think making the point is a start towards the call for censorship. Why should we censor this game? Are we not mature enough, as responsible adults, to handle a game like this? What of the other racially-charged video games and movies?

Posted by: Anthony at August 1, 2007 1:14 PM

I as a Chinese feel that this is just poor journalism. The local is Haiti and not Africa. As the 7th+ game in this series, a local with primarily black inhabitants was bound to happen. The race of the protagonist isn't an issue. Capcom is a japanese company and no one ever said anything when they had white characters beating up on Asian possessed characters in their game. Their last in this series was also in Spain. So a White on yellow or brown is ok?

Posted by: Jack Lee at August 1, 2007 1:17 PM

If one feels uncomfortable about the white protagonist shooting african zombies (in africa!) that doesn't at all show racist intent on behalf of the game designers as much as your own racial hypersensitivity.

This racial hypersensitivity often gets us into ridiculous scenarios. Recall the public official who was accused of racism for using the word "niggardly," which btw has absolutely nothing to do with race.

Nintendo's Mario is far more of an ethnic stereotype than anything in the RE5 trailer, but where's the outrage?

There probably is none because it's pretty hard to take seriously the notion that Mario's designer has any animosity towards Italians.

We Americans are very race conscious because throughout our history one's race had and continues to have serious social and sometimes legal significance. It contributes to our fetish for finding racism where there's none intended.

I'm black and the first time I saw the RE5 trailer I thought it was intriguing and that the setting is unique. It didn't occur to me that the white oppressor was killing black people until I came across the "RE5=racist?" talk in the blogosphere.

It's not racist if you have to read so much into it. Just because a videogame character is killing zombies, who had once been human and happen to have dark skin is not an allegory on race.

Any survival horror game set in Africa with a white protagonist will probably involve said white protagonist shooting lots of african zombies. Ask yourself if you'd be more okay with Ada Wong, another RE character shooting african zombies.

If you're more okay with an asian woman shooting the african undead than a caucasian man doing the same, then you should see how silly the this RE5 controversy really is.

Posted by: Geoff at August 1, 2007 1:23 PM

For God sakes, IT IS A GAME! There are plenty of REAL racist problems in this world and we don't need to start making up new ones cause you need your 15 minutes as an ignorant blogger

Posted by: C Power at August 1, 2007 1:32 PM

This article needs to be pulled just on the sheer fact that the author has absolutely no idea what she is talking about. As you can see from all of the comments made absolutely no one is in agreement with her racist frame of mind.

Posted by: Chris Redfield at August 1, 2007 1:33 PM

I don’t think it s so much a racist issue but as a man of African descent I definitely feel where these people are coming from and what they are trying to imply. Obviously there are racial tensions in this country and worldwide especially against people of African descent. Remember games are a way of fulfilling fantasies, dreams, and things not yet possible in real life. A lot of people have negative or insensitive feeling towards blacks and would love to fulfill them, this would be a way to live out those fantasies (just like other video games). In other words it would strengthen their hate and give more fuel to the fire. I can only imagine how many people on XBOX live or PSN spewing negative comments while playing this game.

Also, to counter the argument about RE4 being in Spain and there was no backlash…the original people of Spain weren’t taking from their homeland, disfranchised and enslaved for over 400 years. These people are not so much affected by these portrayals; they don’t have the psychological or economical scars associated with slavery and the fallout that followed so I don’t think there’s a valid comparison there. Any form of entertainment that going to have a White man killing and mistreating blacks on a massive scale is going to cause backlash in the black community. It is what it is people. I am sure if this was WW2 game about an SS soldier going into Poland to round up Jewish people for a death camp base game people would be outraged. I know it’s not entirely the same situation but you get the idea.

Posted by: Neg_MARON at August 1, 2007 1:36 PM

Let's go over a few points here...

1. Resident Evil 0-Code Veronica (which all together was about 6 or 7 games, if you count the survivor series) were about a virus that turn people into zombies. The virus was originally based on the Ebola Virus, which came from Africa. So, now the game is going it would seem to where everything started...Africa. Hence black people.

2. The previous games have all had white main characters killing other white zombies (although you can't really tell most of there races as they're so decomposed). Resident Evil 4 was set in spain, and you did nothing but kill Spaniards who acted the same exact way as the creatures in the Resident Evil 5 video act. So it's alright to show the Spanish as zombies, but not black people? Are you racist against the Spanish?

3. The game is not even made by white people, it's made in Japan, by the Japanese.

4. The plot of the game is that you have to stop a viral infection. So are you saying that the main character should not go to Africa to try and put down the infestation of these parasites and help the non-infected black people? Are you saying we should let the black people in this universe all die becasue you might have to kill a few black zombies? Maybe you're the racist here.

Posted by: Joker at August 1, 2007 1:45 PM

What a load of crap, in my opinion. I despise people who focus on race, first thing, when there is interaction between two people of different races (even pretend people). Even if they're playing racism police. Why do I hate it when people do this? Because to me, that is the very definition of racism! If I played a game set in Africa, and there were Africans there, I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't say OH S*** IT'S RACISMZ! Would they rather see a black hero killing all of the African zombies? What's the difference???

It's just the setting of a story! If you set a story somewhere, you'll have characters (yes, enemies and villains too) that are native to that setting. Because it's set in Africa, it is automatically a race issue? To me, this is the equivalent of watching a movie set in a foreign country, and then getting mad when all of the characters aren't white Americans. Also, I guarantee that there will be living African characters in the storyline. And HIV has absolutely NOTHING to do with Umbrella Corporation, or video games in general. Or zombies. This is just stupid.

Posted by: Draven at August 1, 2007 1:48 PM

The trailer never says that Chris is in Africa. Isn't it racist of the general public to assume that he's in Africa because the people are black? Black people are the majority in more than Africa.

Posted by: Sheep at August 1, 2007 2:00 PM

Becasue of slavery no black person can ever be portrayed in a negative way in any form of media, no matter what the context, ever again...

This is pathetic, it's a game, get over it.

Posted by: sb5283 at August 1, 2007 2:09 PM

I think I'll preface this by saying that no one really knows the plot or intentions behind this game, so its all just speculation.

That said, I think that suggesting Capcom threw the combinations together "willy-nilly" is insulting. Perhaps there is actually a commentary here on racial genocide in Darfur.

Perhaps there is a reference to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and is being used as a social statement.

This could be Capcom following in the steps of Game directors like Hideo Kojima who like to make points with there games.

Finally, I'd like to say that your article was very well written and thought provoking and that I enjoyed it.

Posted by: SteveBurnside at August 1, 2007 2:13 PM

Reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. People are so willing to slap a racist label on everything that when real racism happens, it gets lost in the pile of B.S. like this article. In other games when white zombies were killed I'm betting not one white person complained.

Posted by: Jeff Aronovitch at August 1, 2007 2:42 PM

First off, it's just a trailer so far. We have absolutely no idea of the storyline behind RE5, so please do not attempt to raise a media ruckus over a TRAILER.

Secondly, look at RE4 and its storyline (there are spoilers here). The game was set in Spain and featured Leon from RE2 gunning down countless zombie-like Spaniards. Yet, at the end of the game, you find out that the village, which was depicted as absolutely horrid, was subjugated against its will, and, through a montage of still images, you find that it returns to its idyllic state at the end. Who's to say that the same won't happen to the African village in RE5?

Third, I'm tremendously tired of people crying racism every single time a black person (might be) portrayed in a negative light. Take the children's book, Nappy Hair, from a few years back. Parents raised a misinformed furor because of journalists like yourself over the title, without realizing that the book was about a child celebrating her African-American heritage.

Another thing, RE4 was set in Spain, and ::gasp:: Spanish people were killed. Now, as a Spanish person was I offended? No. I thought it was rather cool that an RE game was actually set in a foreign country for once. But no one raised over a furor over that setting. Why? Is it okay for me to die because my people weren't enslaved or endured racism?

Fourth, before you and colleagues start causing a firestorm, actually attempt to get some information about what you're talking about for once.

Posted by: Gabe at August 1, 2007 2:55 PM

To the person who thinks the blog should be pulled, I disagree. I think it should stand along with its responses as a perfect example of the current backlash against the hypersenitive "I-have-a-right-not-to-be-offended" mindset" currently creeping through every form of media we have. It is killing meaningful dialogue and promoting fear of speaking ones mind truthfully. The writer of this piece is no better than people like Jackson & Sharpton who do nothing to advance a solution to our differeces, only inflame an already bad situation. Also, in games as in humor, context is everything, dont imply racial animosity where it simply doesn't exist.

Posted by: TJ Landry at August 1, 2007 3:22 PM

Amazing how people on either side of an issue can get so worked up about a video game. Personally I am excited to play a game in a new location that hasn't really been explored to its full potential.

The only issue I could see people having with this game is the fact that Africa is not portrayed well in pop media. What gets filtered through are the war crimes, the corruption, the disease, the poor quality of life, and nature shows.

Posted by: Joshua at August 1, 2007 3:26 PM

Here's an idea...Change the contrast on your TV set. You can pretend you're shooting whichever race you're little heart desires.

Posted by: Phil at August 1, 2007 3:48 PM

No wonder I never heard of you guys. I guess you had to make something that sparked some controversy to be heard. ABSOLUTE GARBAGE WRITING.

Posted by: Village Voice BS at August 1, 2007 3:49 PM

The tone of this article gives me the impression that the most exposure you've had to any Resident Evil game is via trailers (and perhaps a cursory glance at a Wikipedia article). The flaw inherent to your judgment that the game contains hints of racism is, primarily, that the game is NOT complete. What we all see in the trailer is a small sampling of the game that is NOT representative of its whole. If you have the ability to read into a work, and the eloquence to write your conclusions "on paper," then I would assume it's safe to believe your education is not so lacking that you know what sampling is (especially in the context of symbols and human psychology).

In this case, specifically, your lack of attention to the series' prior release, Resident Evil 4, brings into question the credibility of your research. Like so many "experts" before you, you've only managed to present a smidgen of the facts -- and that isn't good enough, especially not when the consideration that the materiality of the evidence in support of the Resident Evil series NOT being racist is significant enough to skew your judgment.

That said, your responsibility in this is to either a) do more research and come back with stronger evidence in support of your claims, or b) retract the article.

Posted by: John Wilhite at August 1, 2007 3:55 PM

As I recall, there is exactly one uninfected villager in the trailer. He looks pretty goddamned scared to me.

Really, is it so hard to just accept this as a change of setting? Why is it that white men and zombies killing each other is perfectly fine, but when any black people are brought into the mix, "Oh snap, hate crime"?

Posted by: Munchy at August 1, 2007 4:01 PM

I have a question: Considering that the RE series has always been about fighting classic voodoo-inspired zombies (IE not undead but instead living slaves often converted by poison) as specified in classic afro-cuban mythology, shouldn't it be racist that there has been absolutely no involvement of black (or African/African-American if you prefer) people in previous Resident Evil games?

Posted by: Josh at August 1, 2007 4:05 PM

Actually, I agree with the author...I actually think all of the Resident Evil games were racist. My father was polish/hungarian and my mother was a zombie, and quite frankly, I am sick of the bias against zombie-americans or zombie-africans. it needs to stop now. :sigh:

Posted by: ME at August 1, 2007 4:21 PM

Pretty thoughtful take on it. I'm not sure what to make of the frothing response this issue seems to be getting by commenters here, at Kotaku, at Joystiq, and probably everywhere else it's been covered. I didn't interpret the trailer as racist either, but that's because I put it in context of the entire Resident Evil series. I'm not sure why people are unable to imagine how it looks to somebody who hasn't played the game, and just sees a bunch of homicidal black people swarming the good-looking white guy. And, frankly, the majority of the comments I read have made me realize that racism is alive and well in America -- it's just cloaked in a sense of white victimization.

Posted by: Mitch at August 1, 2007 4:25 PM

"Machine guns in hand,"

In the Resident Evil series, machine guns are the worst possible weapons to use (excluding the "special unlockables".) They are extremely difficult to land the headshots required to kill zombies, and less effective than precision weaponry.

If you don't know much about the series - don't guess. At least play one of the games, or do detailed research before you make claims.

"As one forum commenter wrote, “Is it just me, or is there something subtly racist about gunning down mobs of angry Africans?”"

In other words, it's perfectly acceptable for Umbrella corporation to infect an entire city/country/continent without opposition.

Most such complaints are from people who know nothing about the game or reality, which is typical of these so-called controversies. Overall, it's just plain silly.

Posted by: Sigma 7 at August 1, 2007 4:49 PM

This is ridiculous. I am a 33 yr old black man, born and raised in America and this article is embarrassing to me because of the blatant stupidity of such statements. There is NOTHING of intelligent basis, here. The RE series decides to make Africans victims of the manmade virus which has claimed many victims OUTSIDE OF AFRICA in the past. I get tired of seeing people of my own race make mountains out of mole hills and when issues NEED to be raised, they are not.
Stop reading so much into this and GROW UP and do a better job of journalism. Thank you.

Posted by: Trey at August 1, 2007 4:54 PM

I like turtles!

Posted by: Joseph Falham at August 1, 2007 4:58 PM

I think you're being a little premature here, as we know next to nothing about the game. People who cry racism from a short trailer of a game are either being overly-sensitive (whether for good reasons or bad), or just looking for attention. But in case you think I'm being insensitive, let's look at the facts that we do know:
1) Africans live in Africa (shocking, I know). If it showed a white man shooting white people in an African jungle, something would look very wrong.
2) The trailer itself is not only very short, it is incredibly vague (obviously intentional to draw out speculation and curiosity). To make any judgements using it as a basis is like judging the entire human civilization based on a 5 minute meeting with one person.
Overall, I'd almost call this sensational if it wasn't so absurd.

Posted by: Jonny N. at August 1, 2007 5:10 PM

Resident Evil 1 - white people are zombies

Resident Evil 2 - white people are zombies

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Code: Veronica - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Survivor - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Gaiden - white people are zombies

Resident Evil: Survivor 2 Code: Veronica - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Zero - white people are zombies

Resident Evil: Dead Aim - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Outbreak - white people are zombies

Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - white people are zombies

Resident Evil 4 - white people are zombies

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles - white people are zombies

Resident Evil 5 - ZOMBIE AFRICANS?! RACISM
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Please, I’m sure the majority of ALL people won’t give a flying crap.
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Where was you fuss before this? your outrage at this nothing less than offensive.

Clean up your own community before you start pointing fingers, this is the least of your problems.

Posted by: Peter at August 1, 2007 5:15 PM

Add me to the list of "not that convinced this is anything but 'go somewhere, kill zombies.'" Resident Evil has mentioned Umbrella activity in the Congo before, and the games have been set all over the globe--including Antarctica.

The characters who have become the major sold-their-soul inhuman villains in the Resident Evil series--I can already tell you've never played it, so here's some names, please Google--are Alexia Ashford, Jack Krauser, and Albert Wesker. All three are blond.

Resident Evil zombies are -victims-, not aggressors. The villagers in RE4 can easily be seen as tragic figures (especially given the image montage at the end of RE4, which I think is the fall of the village--one mother is shown with a dead child.) If you'd played RE4, you'd also know that the infection was spreading and causing people to become dangerous long before it became visible. This sense of menace was conveyed by finding a dead villager pinned to a wall by a pitchfork through her face, but I took that less as misogyny than as "some of them were not infected, but were brutally killed, and I will not find allies here." I take the trailer as doing the same thing.

I can't say that RE4 was a gem of accuracy in portraying Spain, or that I've never raised eyebrows at the series. I do think you're going too far on too little information, and I also think it would be racist if Capcom were to instead suggest that no matter where in the world you go, there will only be the white majority.

Posted by: sharky at August 1, 2007 5:16 PM

Capcom was wrong to do this. Obviously, the white character should be shooting white zombies in black locales. That way, everybody will think Africans and Haitians are white and easily dispensed with firearms.

Because we all get our education from video games, right?

Funny thing is, if the game took place in Africa and just showed white folks, there'd be outrage over Capcom's fear of showing blacks in Africa or of covertly supporting apartheid.

There's no winning when people are looking to make an issue of everything.

Posted by: SinistarX at August 1, 2007 5:23 PM

Finger pointing and bandwagon journalism at it's finest right here folks.

I would post more but I feel all the other posters have pretty much laid down a solid rebuttal to the author.

Posted by: Daniel at August 1, 2007 5:23 PM

Way to go! You have increased the sales of RE5 tenfold!

You have made a non-issue a non-issue but with larger sales.

Perhaps you work for Capcom because this is brilliant :)

Posted by: Mike at August 1, 2007 5:26 PM

Excellent point bodden.

Posted by: Sean at August 1, 2007 5:28 PM

"A white man should never be seen, at least in popular culture mediums, shooting hordes of indiscriminate blacks because they have actually done it before."

Yeah because Black people are immune to killing White people right? I mean it's never happened before in the history of mankind.

Yeah that was sarcasm!

Posted by: Drifter at August 1, 2007 5:32 PM

Has anyone stopped to think that, perhaps, this game takes place in Haiti, a nation with a long history or zombie-ish weirdness?

Posted by: Brian at August 1, 2007 5:45 PM

Im black and I experience racism from ppl all the time, I have learned to deal with it. White ppl like to rationalize that it isn’t that much of a problem,(I guess it helps them sleep at night). I agree with the alot of the comments made above. We as blacks are a bit overly sensitive about the issue, but I think whites are also a bit insensitive about it too. Remember you were not on the receiving end of organized racism. And even though legal segregation ended in the late 60’s early 70’s. Racist attitudes in every sense of the word still exist in our great county.

That being said, this game opens wounds that have not healed yet. Yes previous RE's have had whites and spanish ppl as zombies, but I think the issue still lies in how organized racism was an issue in the past. If I created a video game where Germans pummelled, burned and killed other germans, then another in which they pummelled, burned, poisened the english, then created another where germans pummeled, killed, burned and poisoned jews in israel. I am pretty sure that it would raise an eyebrow or two with the Israelis. Reminding them of old wounds. It does the same for us blacks.

Posted by: MaybeUAreRacist at August 1, 2007 5:46 PM

Absolutely pathetic. This isn't news. This shouldn't even be a valid opinion. I am trying so desperately hard to not swear at you, but this article has made it so difficult.

As a user has already said, do some damn research before you infect the internet with irrelevant filth like this. We can shoot spanish zombies right? But not black zombies? A black guy can kill hundreds of white guys right? But not the other way around? If you ill-educated, ignoramuses actually gave a damn about these types of issues, you wouldn't attack forms of media that you are using as a scapegoat to shield youselves from the actual truth of the matter. It's not games that are fueling racism. Or violence. Or corruption of our childrens' minds. It's people. People hate people. That's human nature. Write a blog about a solution to that and you would probably be given some sort of award.

Also, to end this rant, if you manage to get this forthcoming game banned because of this ignorant rubbish, I can guarantee you will probably be one of the most hated and unpopular women in the world.

Posted by: Cabal at August 1, 2007 5:54 PM

nothing beats a well to do white girl telling you whats racist, cause you know, she knows, especially after taking those african studies classes she took at her liberal arts college. i guess its the whites job to say what and what isnt racist nowadays.

Posted by: Dan at August 1, 2007 6:01 PM

it's just a video game lady. don't take it too seriously.

Posted by: robert at August 1, 2007 6:02 PM

The reason you might have been disturbed by the trailer is because of the "inhuman" look of the animation. Are you familiar with the Uncanny Valley concept? The characters in this trailer fall deep into it because they are approaching looking human, but yet, because of technical gaps not cleared, they don't convey more realistic behaviors and expressions.

That's maybe part of why it's unsettling. Look into it.

Posted by: Mike at August 1, 2007 6:02 PM

RE: MaybeUAreRacist

They are freaking zombies. All of them were freaking zombies in each and every game ! Why can't you understand that ? Not only that people are judging the game via a god damn trailer ! Hello why don't you wait to buy and play the game to see what the hell it's really about before casting judgment?

Oh well never mind...You know what let's never include black people any form of entertainment medium ever again. Hell we can just pretend they don't even exist period because obviously it's not worth the effort at all including them into anything.

The next RE game should be set in Africa again but all the characters should be white. Will that make you happy?

Posted by: Drifter at August 1, 2007 6:07 PM

You have got to be kidding me. Was anyone complaining when we were slaughtering countless Spaniards in RE4? I don't think so. Killing people of only spanish descent isn't racist. Yet killing blacks is racist? You have got to be kidding me! This little blog entry is just pure ignorance. PS: RE5 looks freaking awesome

Posted by: Julian at August 1, 2007 6:15 PM

This sounds very typical of modern media. That being, sensationalist, hypersensitive drivel that seeks not only to point fingers (rather than realize it's themselves), but to gain potential for other people to do likewise. This article seems to be a pinnacle of what is media today, disinformation coupled with sensationalism (and visa versa). All to cause an uproar and mislead. Absolutely contemptible.

Posted by: Tom at August 1, 2007 6:15 PM

This is the most racist article I've seen yet about this.

The author seems to indicate that it's not okay for Black people to be portrayed as zombies, yet they seem to be perfectly fine with the depiction of Caucasians as zombies in the previous games.

Posted by: Ian at August 1, 2007 6:27 PM

There are very big problems with the arguments made in this article.

A) You are killing ZOMBIES!! Does it really matter what color they are? If you're in Africa, chances are that the zombie outbreak is going to infect black people; I know that is extremely shocking.

B) There were no qualms about the previous Resident Evil games where you kill hordes of white or Spanish zombies.

C) The game is going to, without a doubt, receive a Mature (18+) rating. Would you not agree that most 18+ year olds can handle the fact that the brain craving zombies just happen to be Africans?

I could probably go on..but I don't think it's necessary, especially since it looks like most of these same problems have been pointed out in other comments.

Posted by: Joe at August 1, 2007 6:34 PM

What an incredibly racist article, neatly packaged in psuedo-intellectual word-dropping. Kudos on keeping up the VV tradition of taking itself - and everything else - too seriously.

Posted by: Wow at August 1, 2007 6:34 PM

This is stupid, i'm spanish an i don't have any problem with re4.
In RE Outbreak you can play as a black hero and you must kill white zombies, this is good uh? but if a white kills black zombies no... you are the unique racist here... if you want to avoid racism, you can begin stopping of saying shit like this.

Posted by: Kyojinmaru at August 1, 2007 6:40 PM

Well maybe if you've played the other 8 thats right 8 resident evil games, you'd know every zombie in them (except RE4)is white, and yet no one complained. And then RE4 had Hispanic monsters, and you didn't say anything when this white man was gunning them down. But now he's gunning down Africans you try and say it's bad. I'm black, and I don't take offense to this what so ever. I say this artic e is racist against white people.

Posted by: Theo Kellam at August 1, 2007 6:48 PM

In response to your comment about how the black people look before they are infected, typically - in these games - you are never present for the viral outbreak. That is to say, anyone who is infected is already infected. Anyone who isn't, was likely killed/eaten by the infected people.

Also, since Resident Evil 4, they have introduced an intelligent breed of zombie to the series. At the start of Resident Evil 4, the village appears to be normal. However, as soon as they notice you, you realize that they are all actually infected by a parasite.

In short, the reason that the people in the trailer look a little spooky is likely due to the fact that they are already infected, and are about to go bat-shit crazy on the protagonist.

Posted by: Jordan at August 1, 2007 7:09 PM

I just thought I'd say, though not many people will read down this far, Japanese can be racist too. Race doesn't mean you can't be racist. Also... it's game. You kill undead and unhuman things.

Posted by: Colorblind at August 1, 2007 7:09 PM

Wow... I've read almost half of the comments and noone agrees with you... not even the black people who comments... are you really fighting for them or do you just think you are?

If anyone's a racist here it's you for saying "See all those spooky shots of the villagers before they get infected?" and trying to analyse something thats not even there. Do you really think black people look "spooky"...?

Posted by: Blä at August 1, 2007 7:32 PM