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Resi 5 Producer Rebukes Racism Backlash
Capcom's Masachika Kawata has spoken on the allegations of racism in his team’s upcoming Resident Evil 5, claiming that the
A surprising volume of accusations of racist intent were squared at Capcom from many corners of the internet following the game’s video showcase at E3 2007. Condemnation was largely rooted in game’s illustration and animation of black zombies, of which the game’s white protagonist kills in great numbers. Speaking to CVG, Kawata stated that “for the people who think it's racist... well, we can't please everyone. We're in the entertainment business, we're not here to state our political opinion or anything like that. It's unfortunate that some people felt that way.”
He also expanded on the reason behind electing
Following the controversy back in June 2007, a number of Resident Evil 5 videos surfaced showing a more racially-diverse spread of enemies as well as an African female protagonist. However, the game’s producer, Jun Takeuchi, claimed that the videos were not responding to racism accusations but instead part of the plan all along.
Speaking of that plan, Kawata acknowledges the pressure on his team to follow Resident Evil 4, a winner of numerous GOTY awards as well as finishing second place in the Edge supplement The 100 Best Videogames. “We didn't create Resident Evil 4,” he said, “Shinji Mikami created it. Mr Mikami is pretty much a genius anyway, so Resident Evil 4 was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing. We're under a lot of pressure to live up to expectations, but we've done what we wanted to do.”
If there's anything racist about this game, I think people will only be able to really tell after they've actually played it instead of basing it on a few snippets of movies or screenshots they've seen on the internet. Given the choice of location... wouldn't it be actually racist to have zombies that aren't black? I think that from whatever perspective you would look at this game, it would feel very weird.
Btw, looking at the motion capture movies from this title, it's interesting to see how much the female lead character looks like her real life double: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44080.html
Hey man, it's not a black or white issue, it's a zombie killing issue, no one ever sticks up for these much miss understood members of our society, or have I been playing games too much?
This isn't just about race - it's also about colonialism, and it's through that prism that some of the comments about the game being racist can be understood. Western imperialism in what is now thought of as the developing world left powerful legacies on the national consciousness of many developing countries, and with good reason given the exploitative and usually brutal colonial regimes that Western powers installed. Africans in particular remember Western domination as being characterised by injustice, brutality and - often - mass-murder.
The reason that the game's story-line raises hackles despite colonialism ending years ago is that, firstly, colonialism certainly hasn't been forgotten (apartheid in South Africa only ended in 1994), and secondly because the game is so clearly reminiscent of the colonial setting with the player taking the role of the bad guys. A white guy from a western country going into Africa and shooting hordes of black people (even if they're zombies - so they just look like crazy black people)? Imagine if the game had you play a German being sent into England to shoot hordes of the English, or as as a Japanese soldier being sent to China/Korea to shoot hordes of Chinese/Koreans. There would be riots in China if the latter game ever got made, and with good reason - whatever the storyline, the very concept would be in extremely bad taste.
Criticism coming from blacks in the US about this can perhaps be linked to empathy? There are a lot of parallels between white European treatment of blacks in Africa and white American treatement of blacks in the States, and the existence of slavery in America was closely related to the growth of colonialism in Africa. Imagine if the game had a white protagonist going to Georgia or Mississippi to shoot black zombies. Depending on your perspective, you might not find the two settings all that different. If you don't see the similarity then it's worth trying to understand why other people would rather than just dismissing the controversy out of hand.
That this didn't even occur to the producers doesn't mean that they're racist, but it does mean that they're ignorant of major currents in international politics and ethnic controversies. They're clearly not ignorant of these things any more, and seem to be doing their best to fix things, so fair play to them in my book.
ah, I'd like to point out that Capcom's been accused of racism against blacks in the past before
Do you remember the intro to Street Fighter II? It's a blond guy slugging a black dude. I remember that as a kid, it may even be the first interracial battle I'd seen, hahah.
in later versions of SFII, they lighten the skin color of the guy being slugged.
Now, did you notice the background too? I don't think anyone did, but there were no dark skinned people in the crowd. Those later versions of Street Fighter II's intro added dark skinned people into the audience.
though to Capcom's credit, they've created Dudley, the most Dignified Gentleman Fighter to ever exist in any media, who is also black.
(or possibly Indian...)
I'm not going to try to act very educated in this matter since I’m not. But I do want to say one thing. Whatever actual suffering blacks in this country went through I'm sure was terrible and I, not being alive at that time, can't comment on. But it seems like it’s never going to die. How long after those events took place do we have to be "sensitive" about it?
And the "white guy" is killing African ZOMBIES (or people infected with a parasite virus, whatever). He's not killing innocent Africans. Should he not kill the zombies because they're black? I just think it’s silly that RE4 took place in Mexico and a white guy killed plenty of Mexicans and no one seemed to care about that.
Again, I'm sure the blacks suffered quite a bit as many other races over the last couple thousand years have suffered at times as well, but I don't think the "black" race that has suffered deserve any more sensitivity toward race related content than any other race that has suffered does. We need to be sensitive to all races (or none) that have had gone through tough times (You may or not remember the Japanese had it pretty bad in the US at one point, arguably worse than the blacks ever did in the US) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
And I don't think I've ever heard the Japanese complain about it (and WWII wasn't that long ago either). We can't pick and choose who deserves sensitivity and who doesn't. All or none. I vote for none, as those things are in the relative distant past and are best kept there IMHO.
Much ado about nothing, IMO. I'm Spanish, but did not take offense to all the Spaniards slaughtered in RE4. They're just mixing up settings/locations as the series was getting stale taking place in the same setting for the first few iterations.
I’m still bothered. The real issue isn’t so much that people thought Resident Evil 5 was racist, but that it was... insensitive, and it doesn’t help simply to brush off people’s concerns.
Sure, it’s relevant that Africa has already been established as a region key to the story of the Resident Evil series, and I’m glad the producer was willing to make a defense of his work. It’s also relevant, though (as N’Gai Croal pointed out), that the “savage black horde” image has a dark history all over the world, which Capcom ought to be aware of when producing for a global audience.
As far as I know, no one is saying Capcom can’t make games with black zombies. What this producer sadly doesn’t seem to understand is that Capcom never seemed to display any sensitivity, any concern, for the imagery they were digging up. By brushing off those concerns, he’s making that problem worse.
http://tinarussell.wordpress.com/
No you have to understand that Japanese people didn't have black slaves so they haven't grown up to be overly sensitive non-thinking retards when it comes to using people of different colours in games.
We've had games killing germans, latinos, orientals and just about every race except black people. One game gets made that makes pure sense to place in Africa which, surprisingly enough, has black people in it and people get all upset over it.
If your PC brainwashed mind doesn't like it then don't buy it.
So ignorance is bliss? Not knowing, even if unaware is okay? While I agree with your point of "overly sensitive" its not just one game killing blacks (there are MANY others, GTA San Andreas anyone?), just a game BIG enough to garner the attention in the press/media to create some spin.
Innocently enough, I think the game was created. The "bubble" has been popped and now the producer and Capcom are fully aware. Capcom will never do something like this again. I'd bet on it, big.
Think about Africa's history and its current situation. The most exploited country on the planet with famine, disease, war, genocide. Was it always this way? So its cool to exploited another human being for your own ends? Maybe a picture of a noose doesn't have an effect on you, but it does me and my family. We are indian and black. When you don't come from it, you don't understand it. When you experience it, it is truly eye-opening...
Uh hello GTA:SA is a game starting a black person and in fact the black heroes kill Latinos and whites yet you didn't mention that as if it doesn't matter. You say there are many but then you can only name one which doesn't even support your argument. You've just proved my point exactly.
Every family has slavery in their background because everyone including Chinese, Irish, etc. have been slaves. In fact Chinese slaves were used by the US to help build the rail lines in the west. So why don't the Chinese get the same sympathy? In fact it's still more acceptable to mock orientals even in a racist context than it is a black man. Why?
I'll tell you why. The so called Democratic party was THE party of the redneck slave owner back in the old days. Even Al Gore Sr was a dixiecrat and voted against the civil rights bill of 1964.
The democrats realised their loyal base wasn't enough and they reinvented themselves pandering to blacks and brain washing millions into thinking US slavery is the worst thing to ever happen and the blacks have some how been hard done by worse than anyone else. Making everyone forget the Indians had it worse and still do or the fact the Jews have had worse happen to them for centuries. This is also why black Americans are generally quite loyal to the Democratic party despite it's slave friendly past.
This is also why Americans offensively refer to all black people as African Americans. Ignoring the fact that not all black people come from Africa and not allowing white people born in Africa to correctly claim their title as African-American. Maybe if people used their minds they'd realise that title is BS. Jamaicans and blacks from that part of the globe generally don't like Africans and visa verse. How do you think they like being called African American?
They also conveniently forget most of Africa's problems are due to corrupt black Africans like Mugabe who, I'm sure you know, isn't some colonialist puppet. Ethiopia participates in the Miss Universe pageant and their contestants are anything from starved and poor. Why? Because the black people running those countries are crapping over their citizens and keeping the wealth to themselves. That is also why western nations should quit giving hand-outs. None of that money filters down to the people that need it. It may surprise you but black people can be corrupt too.
This strategy worked well for democrats and left the republicans handicapped by those redneck families migrating from the democrats to the republicans. One day the Republican party will realise this and reinvent themselves as well. Hopefully when they do so they won't damage the US by brainwashing the nation with propaganda, guilt and out-right lies.
I think you're quite naive and you're biased. You only care about your own heritage and seem overly protective of it while forgetting your fellow man. Hence the reason you pick a game about blacks killing blacks, latinos and whites and use it as a game about mass killing of black people.
>>So why don't the Chinese get the same sympathy? In fact it's still more acceptable to mock orientals even in a racist context than it is a black man. Why?
Because they never stood up for themselves the way African Americans did, and there's less of them to do so (which was the plan of the Chinese exclusion act, I guess it worked)
And on the rare occasion they do, it's often met with the attitude that you are showing right now.
My attitude is that no one should get special treatment for something that happened ages ago because of the simple fact, as I've stated, every group of people at some point received shit from someone. So where do you draw the line? Should everyone compensate everyone?
The fact I believe in real equality means my attitude is perfectly valid. I don't like what happened in the past but the fact is I haven't done anything wrong nor has anyone in my family for numerous generations. So whether someone is black or Chinese they shouldn't come to me looking for an apology. That is a fair stance that doesn't favour anyone else. But the message author I've replied to is making it out like Capcom has done something wrong. If that is his belief then he should be equal and defend against the wrong-doings against others as well rather than being self serving because it just makes you look like a hypocrite.
The fact is as long as we keep drawing lines between people there will never be equality. Everything in the past should be forgiven and we move on. Claiming the blacks deserve it because they fought for it is silly. It just implies that all you need to do in life is complain the loudest and you'll eventually get your way.
For example, while it's a very minor thing in the grand scheme of things it's quite sad that equality in free speech does not exist. The fact blacks have full access to all words where as any other race has to watch themselves and especially avoid the "N word". Look, if we want to ban the word then fine. Do it for everyone. No some people.
The problem is I don't think people are ready to be equal because humans have had to be self serving towards their to survive for centuries. We should at least have the decency to recognise this fact and quit acting as if their actions have equality's best interests in mind and they should be labelled as self serving with no implication that anything they're doing is for equality.
Here here AndyLC
This topic is old. The game is simply, a game. Not a commentary on ethic relations. It is simply a game. I can't wait until Friday, March 13, 2009.
Same with Far Cry 2 too. I don't personally like they way blacks are portrayed in America, period. Let alone Africa, but I can't gauge how racism, excuse me, (we are all one race, Human) ethnic prejudice is in Japan. I have never been, so I don't know.
Being "African American" Do I think they should have been more conscientious of its portrayal of blacks in Africa? Hmmm...Can't really answer that one, don't know enough of the culture to address it intelligently. But when I saw the video last year I was concerned before anyone said anything. White man killing blacks in Africa, the flags went off for me before the media tainted it.
Then again, for me, Ngai Croal can be out of touch on alot of things from a certain standpoint...
I'm wondering why there aren't more Black protagonists in games. Hell, I think AMERICA will have a black president. I'm a huge gamer, Where's the love?
who thought Red Steel was racist? You're a white guy, you go to Japan to kill Japanese and save the helpless Good Japanese from the ruthless Bad Japanese, because they can't do it without a white guy's help.
Howabout Kung Fu Chaos? a game full of purposefully stereotypical caricatures, who's creators even say "hey, it wasn't racist, get that stick out of your butt"
Then you've got Mercenaries, it takes the Real Country of North Korea and says they're nuclear bandits that you get to gun down in explosive ways. I think Crysis has a similar plot?
RE5 in comparison, there's a story reason to be in Africa other than "Africans are terrorizer Gangsters! Kill them!!".
I guess a big difference is Resident Evil is a big name, compared to the above. But it seems people are also selective with what they deem racist, but that's understandable, you can't instantly relate to everyone on the same page.
It is good to be aware of these things though. Even though I love Capcom and the RE series, watching buffed out Chris Redfield punch the hell outta black dudes was discomforting,
the Capcom guys must have been watching Black Hawk Down when making RE5 heheh
Ngai Croal wrote an excellent response to this sort of thing already, everyone should go to his blog and dig it up.