5 Reasons Why Resident Evil 5 isn't Racist

Home » Aeropaused, Culture, Industry, XBOX 360

5 Reasons Why Resident Evil 5 isn’t Racist

Submitted by Richard Windsor on August 1, 2007 – 1:39 pm117 Comments

I have always tried to stay out of discussions about racism, not because they make me uncomfortable, but because two sides can rarely agree on the topic. The debate over whether Resident Evil 5 is racist or not is one that I don’t mind chiming in about. Recently a woman who writes for a blog called Black Looks wrote a small article that stated the following:

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’ns fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

Not only is her argument baseless and without intelligent merit, it is obvious she did not even bother doing any research whatsoever. So here are 5 reasons why her arguments are dead wrong.

5. Japanese Developed – She obviously feels the game is an intentional racist product, but last time I checked RE5 was being developed by a Japanese game company. Do the Japanese have a secret hatred for black people? The answer is no!

4. So Killing White Zombies is OK Amongst the comments to her blog post she replied with this statement:

Yes I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth.‚Äù

This comment just makes my head spin with the amount of stupidity in every word. I really can’t think of what else to say about this comment.

3. Zombies Aren’t Civilized I think that the author needs to watch a zombie movie or two to realize that they are not tame or kind creatures. Zombies don’t politely ask to eat your brains; they just chomp down on your skull like it was a big hairy apple. Luckily zombies are not real, or are they? Should the developers make them nice zombies just because they are black? The answer is no, zombies no matter what color are zombies, and any person who is smart enough to pass sixth grade can tell that. It is not racism it’s called variety.

2. Location Location Location This being RE‚Äôs first go round with next gen hardware I imagine the developers wanted to go to a location that looked as gritty and earthy as possible. Africa is a perfect setting because it is a beautiful area that allows for many cool plot points. The game just would not seem right if the zombies in Africa were white. Africa is a great location for a game and just so happens to be populated heavily by Africans‚ imagine that!

1. White Zombies Have Been Done to Death Ever since we first got a taste of Resident Evil every mindless slow walking zombie we have come across has been white, in skin color at least. Black people get killed in movies all the time yet I have not heard of protests about it. Would we be seeing an uproar if the zombies were all women or would PETA be upset if there was nothing but dog and cat zombies. The United States has a lot of work yet to do when it comes to race relations, but we have come quite a long way so far. A video game about zombies should be the last thing we worry about as a culture. Maybe we should pay more attention to huge number of kids caught up in skinhead groups or the reorganization of the KKK that is happening in America, but no we are sitting here talking about a video game‚ and that makes me kind of sad.

Tags: resident evil

Bathykolpian

Well done. I loved this article. It covered just about every reason except that your partner in it is black and just about every villain is white. I love stuff like this though. Like in The Office, rather than making the Indian girl all serious and smart, they make her a bimbo. That’s equality. Why should white people always be the enemy or the comic relief. Have some variation.
Also, the game isn’t aimed at children like she claims. It’s probably going to be an 18 like all the Resident Evil games I’ve played have been.
michael

yeah..so i deffinatly agree with you 100% some kids at my school tried to argue with me about it..and they said the same crap that lady did, and i said the same thing you did, plus..its just a game..RE4 there were mexicans..but no one said anything about that.
troy

maybe if people actualy stopped and thought about it for a minute they wouldnt be saying its racist, and thanks for clearing this up for people
whogivsafuk

who gives a fuck who gives a fuck who gives a fuck who give a fuk
GrandMasta Flash

wow, why cant we all just kill all raced zombies b/c dont let us forget it is the killing of zombies that make it what. it is not killing black yellow or white zombies that makes it particularity interesting, but the fact that all are heads exploding looks the same
Travis Merrick

Resident evil 4 wasn't called racist! and they were shooting spanish people. its only if they are black it racist!
Morgan

Right on Brotha! Word for word, you ate that blogger up? She's pretty ignorant to the whole thing, and sounds racist herself!
Bears

RE4 was set in Spain. Being Spanish, I was in no way offended. Although Spain is a modern as any western nation, the game was set in what was supposed to be a rural, rugged area. I never felt that the game was implying that all of Spain is that way. The hero was a white man with blonde hair, but at no point did it come across as a racial implification. The same formula seems to apply to RE5. Rural, rugged, and set in a new area – this time Africa. Why should anyone be offended by that?
connor

I totally agree with what your saying. A zombie game that is staged in africa is going to have black people in it. Im so sick of people that get so caught up in not being racist that they strike out at every little thing and become racist themselves. We have alot more to worry about with the economy as it is. America needs to get its priorities straight.
clair

there are also white zombies in RE5 too:D
i agree with everything you have said;)
well done:Dx
Urmom

u no, i think the person's a hypocrite. she's racist against white ppl. ima go to her blog and spam it with things like, ur racist, or HYPOCRITE.
kalderuk01

Mate, I completely agree with everything you have said in this article but do feel I have to add a couple of points to strengthen your argument:

1) Resident Evil 5 (Along with RE 4) does not have any Zombies in it but rather people that have been overtaken but parasitic infections and are being controlled by a leader that is ordering them to run around like “inhuman savages” and kill you!!

2) Resident Evil 4 followed a very similar storyline but this was set somewhere in Eastern Europe and was entirely based around White people (with no black people in at all.

3) The 2nd character in RE5 is a Young Black Woman; who runs around shooting just as many “inhuman savages” as the White American; sometimes even more.

4) The storyline very clearly states that the local people in the African setting (including tribes people) have been experimented on by the white man and it’s corporations and it goes as far as to try and make you feel empathy for them and for the way they are being unjustly treated!

I agree whole-heartedly that this is just another blatant example of someone that got their knickers in a twist about something that they clearly do not understand and that they most obviously have not bothered to research in any way as their views are completely flawed and without merit. It’s an excuse for another person to cry racism and to try and make the media industry look like arseholes.

Thanks for the opportunity to have a rant myself……..I needed that!!
Jack

Yeah if it's in Africa you wouldn't expect all zombies to be white… But then again you wouldn't want them to all be black… This game just has a good sense of variety. There is NO statement made by any of the characters to suggest this game is racist, through out the whole of the game.
steven

great article, as soon as ANYTHING has something to do with black people its racist. Woah he just said black board, lets sue his white ass. The world is an equal place now, and the fact that she said she's happy that all zombies sould be white then she's more racist than everybody! As soon as the word racism comes into mind we immediately think of black people, thats because they make such a fuss about it. Black's ar racist to whites just as much, if not more, but we never here a damn word about it! cos we dont give a damn.
WHITE POWER

if sitting talking about a video game makes u sad don't do it you dumb fucking nigger.
crypto006

WARNING TO ALL YOU GAMERS OUT THERE WHO MIGHT BE THINKING ABOUT PLAYING RESIDENT EVIL 5 OR WHO HAVEN'T FINISHED IT YET: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS POST!!!

“Yes I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth.”

This is one of the most racist things I've ever heard. What happened to “All men are created equal”? Despite the fact that they're only fictional, shouldn't that quote, which is taken from our very own Constitution, apply to zombies as well? A people's entertainment says a lot about their culture. Don't we owe black zombies the same opportunities that white zombies have had for a long time now? In my life I've found that people often accuse others of the very things they themselves are guilty of. The person I quoted above comes off as an extremely racist person. How's that for the pot calling the kettle black? Btw, never mind that one of the protagonists in the game is black (Sheva Alomar). Christ and Sheva are working together to save the world, against an evil white guy named Albert Wesker, who is aided by an evil white woman named Excella Gionne, who Wesker later kills in the game. Interesting how this person conveniently overlooks all that. Then again, I wonder if she has played the game at all. Word of advise: before you go criticizing a piece of entertainment, whether it be a book, a movie, a song or, in this case, a video game, you might want to read it, watch it, hear it or, in this case, play it first.
scott

you missed a lot here, for one, it's the people that look at a game like this and say it's racist that are the problem. I believe that black people pull the race card too often. why would someone care that the zombies are black? so is the girl sheva that kills them. so is she a racist too? the game is set in Africa, why is it a bad thing to shoot white zombies and not black ones? this is just another sighn of racism in America.