Resident Evil 5: The Response
Hello Everyone,
I thought you’d like to read a few of these interesting letters which were the response to the blogger whose blog I used in my last article. Only edited for language they have remained untouched, bad spelling and grammar. It’s curious how people see things.
Anonymous said…
The writer of this article really needs to do some research. Resident Evil is not and never has been racist. Stop creating drama where there isn’t any. Also I was dissapointed with what Ngai said. Of course few gamers saw anything racist. Its because there isn’t any there. Also, why didn’t the blog mention anything about the African that helps Chris? Or maybe the blogger only saw the first trailer and not the second. Do some research please. June 20, 2008 2:20 PM
Anonymous said…
I forgot. The only reason the Africans look like “savages” is because they have been infected with the virus that has caused all of the trouble in the series. Actually, the spanish and african “zombies” have been smarter than the white ones in the earlier Resident Evil’s. Is Capcom being racist against whites by saying that they are dumber? June 20, 2008 2:23 PM Anonymous said…
Please, before you slander something because it seems controversial at first glance, please do some research. After three minutes of googling i realized that resident evil is about zombies, not some guy killing innocent africans. June 20, 2008 2:28 PM Anonymous said…
By the way, just so you don’t walk around misinformed..This was created by a Japanese company. Video games are a world wide phenomenon. And I have a question. What about the people who really don’t see the racism in this game? Racism is a perception not a concrete fact. If a person sees something as racist does that mean everyone else will? No. Do you think, if no one brought it up there would be any negative thoughts towards blacks as a result of this game? I doubt it. Honestly, it’s about zombies yo. June 20, 2008 2:32 PM Shoehorn O’Plenty said…
Dear Mr. Olorunda,I understand that you may have been shocked by the imagery of the game, but it seems to me as though you know little if anything about the context of the footage you saw. If all you have to go on is the title “African genocide”, then of course this clip is going to look very bad.The clip is from the game Resident Evil 5, the latest game in a long-running franchise of science-fiction/horror titles. Taking inspiration from horror films by the likes of John Romero, the traditional “bad guys” in the series are shambling mindless zombies. The plot of the games revolves around a corrupt organisation called Umbrella who perform bio weapons research. The outcome of this research is a virus that causes the dead to come back to life as zombies.Now that we have some background on the series, you should look at the games that have come before. The first three games in the series featured a majority of white zombies. This (while owing in part to graphical limitations at the time)was because of the setting of the games. The first takes part in a hidden lab. The second in a small American town near the lab, and the third in the same place. The “zombies” are innocent civilians who are affected by the virus, reduced to mindless monsters to set the stage for these exciting and scary games.The fourth game was set in a part of Europe where the zombie characters were changed, this time turned into monsters by a parasite. They could speak instead of just moaning and spoke in a spanish dialect. There was no uproar over this, no claims that the game depicted spaniards or europeans as “savages and helpless imbeciles”. They were spanish because the plot of the game had this evil company setting up in a different part of the world, once again with the native people affected by it’s weapons.Now we come to the fifth game, from which comes the footage you have seen above. In this installment of the series, the evil company has moved once again, this time to Africa, and once again, the innocent people of the area are affected by this virus. This explains why all of the enemies are black (they are the people who live here and who have been infected), and why they act in a violent manner (the virus once again). The game in no way sets out to depict African people as inferior or as violent savages. The reason the protagonist is white, is that he is a popular returning character, Chris Redfield, who has appeared in several installments of the series. As the hero, he is once again fighting against this evil Umbrella corporation. Having tracked them to this location in Africa, he finds they have infected the townsfolk as they have done before and sets out to stop them.
It is a science-fiction/horror story, the latest installment of a long running series, not a game about a white man who goes to Africa to slaughter blacks.
Please consider the game in context, without forming a conclusion based soley on a short piece of misnomered footage.
June 20, 2008 2:32 PM Anonymous said…
This is a little ridiculous. Do you even play videogames or know anything of the story of Resident Evil 5?The characters depicted in the game are not savage natives, but African villagers that become infected with a terrible virus, rendering them violent. Furthermore, the game is set in Africa because that is the “birthplace of humanity.”All the other Resident Evil games have been set in varied locations: America, Europe, etc. The denizens of the territories the game visits all become raging monsters; it is just the nature of the game (and of the fictional virus).I respect your opinion, but I feel it does more harm than good to just jump on the racism bandwagon without thinking about the consequences such a harsh accusation could lead to. What if the creators of this game are in no way racist? What if they were all black? Are you saying that any violent videogame set in Africa is automatically racist? I think the fact that a large majority of people are not associating this game with racism is a good thing. It shows that people don’t care whether the characters are black or white. In a way, you and N’Gai are the ones calling out the unnecessary racist cries.I am a gay man and there have been horrible homosexual stereotypes prevalent in many videogames over the years. I have not cared at all, though; I know in my heart the designers of these games are just making creative choices to make their games more interesting. I highly doubt all of the people that made those videogames are hardcore homophobes.In no way is Resident Evil 5 racist. As much as you are criticizing the game, I could also criticize the bias in your article. For example, why no mention of the black female protagonist who is portrayed as a heroine in Resident Evil 5? Anyway … sorry for the long comment. I just long for a world free of hate and prejudice and feel this kind of article is just fueling the fire.
June 20, 2008 2:35 PM Anonymous said…
I love ignorant and racist white people. You guys sound like the biggest flock of asses I’ve ever seen. Every time you are confronted with your disease of racism, you act as deranged as the zombies in this video game. Why not go get educated on why you’re so f**ked up? June 20, 2008 2:51 PM
Anonymous said…
“The Video Game industry is one which has profited immensely from the casualty of black on black hostility. Notable products of its faculty include, “50 Cent: Bulletproof,” “Def Jam: Icon” and “Grand Theft Auto.” This $10 billion market owes the majority of its inspiration to the tragic decisions of young black and brown teenagers…”wow.. ok correct me if im wrong but isnt the only one being racist here the writer of the article. Surely suggesting GTA and those other games, and hence crime, guns, murder are results of ‘the tragic decisions of young black and brown teenagers ‘ is like somehow trying to say those criminal situations are uniquely ‘black’ which lets face it, they arent. ANYONE can shoot a gun. The colour of your skin doesnt affect your ability to pull a trigger.The only things in RE5 he picks up on are that ‘The trailer featured a Caucasian male mutilating African villages, along with Africans’ . THATS WHAT HE SELECTIVELY CHOOSES TO SEE! again, who is the racist? The creators for making a ZOMBIE GAME (thats already had 5 previous iterations (including Zero) set in spain, and america filled with hispanics, and whites and other races), or the journalist who sees it as a “Caucasian male mutilating African villages, along with Africans” . He is not specifically or selectively KILLING ‘AFRICANS’ he is KILLING ZOMBIES AND MUTANTS.In THIS iteration of the resident evil series the virus/parasites just HAPPEN to be inhabiting the bodies of african males, WHICH IS A GOOD AND JUSTIFIED DESIGN CHOICE IF THE GAME IS SET IN AN AFRICAN VILLAGE! how absolutely STUPID would it look if the majority of the inhabitants of the african village were made white? seriously. IT would look completely stupid and make ooh ZERO sense. Oh and then of course the designers would be accused of not wanting to portray black in a video game and replacing them with whites as blacks ‘are second class’ or something. God this gets me SO mad.FFS if the trailer showed a white zombie and a black zombie, and the protagonist shakes hand with the white zombie and pats him on the back and then shoots the black zombie, in every encounter of the trailer, then fair enough, he may have a point. but im PRETTY DAMNED SURE chris redfield would shoot ANY RACE of zombie/mutant equally quickly if it was lurching forward to take a chunk out of him. In fact if it ever happened to me you can be DAMNED sure id do the SAME THING.It cant be discrimination if every race of zombie (through 5 games) has been treated equally. how can that POSSIBLY be discrimination against ‘black’ zombies. GEEZ this whole idea is completely ridiculous. Finally…
“With the not-so ancient history of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, the issue of racial insensitivity and indifference must be brought to the centerfold…”
NO IT MUSTN’T AT ALL! I cannot disagree any more with this statement. WHY must it be brought to the centrefold??? seriously.WHY?
Im not trivialising black history here but this ISNT a black history lesson in a game box, its a GAME. Its not meant to be anything about ‘black people’ as a race, or a comment on ‘black people’ being savages or whatever. Its meant to be a GAME about hordes of zombies and trying to survive the horror. THATS WHY ITS CALLED SURVIVAL HORROR. T
he only stereotyping is that you are a human who wants to survive, and THEY arent and want to kill you( and for the record when i say THEY i mean Zombies, not black people/africans/ whatever. Just so no1can misread what im saying, because apparently it has to be written in BIG WRITING like a disclaimer for some people who are obsessed with skin colour, perhaps they should stamop it over everything in big red ink stamps just to make it clear. Or is choosing red Colourist to green and blue and would they get bad press for that?)
Just because a game CONTAINS something, doesnt mean its promoting or degrading it. Havent we learned that with the video game violence debate? A game can contain any race it wants to it doesnt necessarily MEAN anything. Why cant it just be a zombie game that happens to be set in africa and therefore features the indigenous race of that country. Seems reasonable to me.
But then again, i see people first then skin colour second. Shame the journalist cannot.
June 20, 2008 3:05 PM
Here’s where it begins to degenerate into cursing and name calling and so on. Like the Fall of Rome, I enjoy watching humanity do that. Notice the first person to actually use a curse word was, I assume, African-American since he mentioned us “whites.”
MechBFP said…
Morons like you are why people are racist against blacks in the first place.
Guess what? People die in Resident Evil. Of course its not racist if the zombies are white! But oh as soon as they are black… f**king idiot.June 20, 2008 3:05 PM Anonymous said…
“I love ignorant and racist white people. You guys sound like the biggest flock of asses I’ve ever seen. Every time you are confronted with your disease of racism, you act as deranged as the zombies in this video game. Why not go get educated on why you’re so f**ked up?”You know what I love? Morons like you that do zero f**king research and like the flock of sheep you are, follow the credo of blind ignorance like it’s your salvation.Just for the record, I’m a Palestinian Muslim. At least PRETEND like you aren’t a total f**king d******bag the next time you post something so godawfully stupid. June 20, 2008 3:07 PM Anonymous said…
When will white people get over their ignorance and delusion? You guys don’t even care if this videogame offends people of color, you just want to call it dumb. That’s why white men have been so god damn stupid all throughout history. June 20, 2008 3:10 PM MechBFP said…
“When will white people get over their ignorance and delusion? You guys don’t even care if this videogame offends people of color, you just want to call it dumb. That’s why white men have been so god damn stupid all throughout history.”I’m black and your offending me. Shut your mouth. June 20, 2008 3:12 PM Anonymous said…
”Actually, the spanish and african “zombies” have been smarter than the white ones in the earlier Resident Evil’s. Is Capcom being racist against whites by saying that they are dumber?”hahah excellent point! i completely forgot about that. Completely fact though what you say, so where does the writer stand on this then comsidering one of his main objections is that the africans act like ‘imbeciles’? June 20, 2008 3:14 PM Bottleneck said…
I’m black also, and MechBFP, you’re offending me. Black people can be just as ignorant as whites when it comes to not understanding racism.Racism comes when you somehow play into stereotypes that have historically existed. The fact that they have no problem designing a game about African genocide connects directly to the fact that many Americans are not sensitive to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Africans via starvation and murder.I would love to design a game about September 11 and show white people falling out of a damn building. Then, we can see how you might feel. June 20, 2008 3:22 PM Anonymous said…
‘ The fact that they have no problem designing a game about African genocide connects directly to the fact that many Americans are not sensitive to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Africans via starvation and murder.’ PLEASE do some research. the WHOLE REASON PEOPLE ARE MAD ABOUT THIS is that Resident evil is NOT A GAME IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM ABOUT AFRICAN GENOCIDE!!
there have been 6 resident evil games (not including spin offs!), the first FOUR involved killing white american zombies, the fourth involved hispanic zombies (the corporation behind the virus escaped and set up in a new country) and this ONE GAME involves majoritively black zombies as this time the corporation have set up in AFRICA.
FACT People in africa are majoritively of african descent.
FACT therfore most zombies in an outbreak would be the local poulation - african descent
FACT you are killing ZOMBIES not targeting ‘africans’ selectively in ANY way. There are zombies of other origins in the game too, and ALL can be killed if they attack the player (zombies tend to do this), as ALL no matter what race are equal threat to the player
THERFORE - FACT - the threat to the player is ZOMBIES not ‘africans’. It doesnt matter if they are black white, hispanic or purple, they all attack the player , and its wise to kill them as fast as you can, NOT because of their race, but because of their tendancy TO TRY AND EAT YOU!
June 20, 2008 3:30 PM Anonymous said…
Bottleneck…Further to what the guy before me said, the developers of this game are Japanese. So the fact that they made it doesn’t really show anything about Americans. June 20, 2008 3:32 PM Bottleneck said…
I don’t give a s**t who the developers are. It’s not cool to show f**ked up scenarios like that of Africans. Again, if you are ok with them developing a game about zombies in the Twin Towers on September 11, falling out of the f**king sky, then I am fine with it.Get some sensitivity and stop being so damn white! June 20, 2008 3:34 PM Anonymous said…
“I would love to design a game about September 11 and show white people falling out of a damn building. Then, we can see how you might feel.”Except that would be an actual event (and one that had members of many races die in it). The game is about a fictional zombie outbreak that takes place in Africa. Are you truly crazy enough to think that those things are the same? Do you know many survivors of African zombie outbreaks that would be offended this game?Do any of the people who think RE5 is racist have anything to say about the numerous other games in the series, all of which have primarily WHITE zombies? Anything at all. I’ve killed white zombies for years in Resident Evil games but now that I can kill black zombies it’s racist? It’s the same damn game. That’s not racism. That’s equal opportunity. All races can become zombies.How the hell are we supposed to consider races equal if both sides would accept equality? If you accept that a white protagonist can kill hordes of white zombies, you can’t bitch about that same protagonist killing hordes of black zombies. That’s saying there’s a differences between how the races should be treated. That’s racism. June 20, 2008 3:38 PM tenno said…
Actually I have quite a few games, where the antagonists are white and I kill them all the same, this game is about as racist as a block of cheese. The write did zero research, and every game example he cited was just as ridiculous. Glad people are jumping on the ANGRY WAGON about it. I’m more than aware of the race issues in our country, which lets face it, isn’t that great, but people as usual are taking this way out of context. You want to fight racism? How about starting where it really exists, and not in some videogame, the next in a huge series that represents 5-6 f**king races as both protagonists and antagonists? Gee, a black protagonist? Guess what, it f**king has one. More than one in fact. Whoops, there’s that research thing again. None of you have even played the game, so until you have a chance to make a level f**king descision, how about showcasing some f**king patience.And someone f**king tell Souljah Boy that Ice-T is right. June 20, 2008 3:46 PM tenno said…
And PS: People of every race and creed died in f**king September 11th. And people of every race and creed came together over it. Stop being a f**king idiot. June 20, 2008 3:48 PM Anonymous said…
So Because Japanese people made a game where a white guy can kill African zombies somehow White people are responsible? Someone better inform the japanese that they are now white. I guess if michael Jackson can randomly choose ethnicity so can they. June 20, 2008 3:51 PM
Well there you have it. People all made excellent points and I decide that the RE5 is not racist in any way, save for the way other people see it.
I bid adieu,
your Origami reporter,
L.Manly
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