About the Author

Fredric is a web developer based in Chicago who hopes to one day start a foundation to support young, Black males in programming and computer science.

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There Are 77 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by blacklooks on 2 August 2007:

   A very large number of the responses expose the dark side of gaming. The level of paranoia about race plus the misogyny amongst this group of people is astonishing. Yes there were some comments that were thought out and could have been followed up in a discussion but it became apparent that any engagement would only further feed the hate therefore preventing any debate.

   The message from the majority was - if you dare to criticise our games or enter our world then we will unleash our venom on you, flame you and bring your site down (my blog was down 3 times yesterday). With a few exceptions, the game reflects the comments and the comments reflect the game - they become one with each other - the irony seems to have been completely missed. We should be concerned.
2. 

   Comment by ETS on 2 August 2007:

   I don’t think anyone is overreacting, but I think you have to realize your audience - like you pointed out. I know this sounds stereotypical, but I’m not sure that I expect much more from video games’ core demographic.
3. 

   Comment by XP on 2 August 2007:

   1. Yes, It’s a game.

   2.Yes, It’s a game.
   3. No, It’s a game.
4. 

   Comment by jccalhoun on 2 August 2007:

   I wouldn’t be so quick to condemn gamers as a whole. From my experiences as a white man teaching mostly white college undergrads, every time I try to suggest that perhaps white people are more privileged in the USA than other groups there are almost always the same types of responses. Another issues is the anonymity of the internet which makes it easy to forget that there are real people on the receiving end of such hateful comments.

   I would hope that at least a few people might learn something from the conversations but from checking gamepolitics.com I see a number of people just posting the same kneejerk reactions “why is it ok for all the other games to have white zombies?” “what about RE4 which was set in Spain?” or “what about games like GTA: San Andreas where a black man shoots all sorts of white people?” even though people have tried to address those issues hours beforehand. It seems that a lot of people are just posting without even bothering to read which is sad.

   The ignorant, racist, misogynistic, and just downright hateful comments were horrible and I’m quite mad about them but I really hope that they aren’t representative of gamers as a whole.
5. 

   Comment by HAHAHA on 2 August 2007:

   I hear some one say”what about GTA: San Andreas where a black man shoots all sorts of white people?”

   in gta the black man also shoots alot of black people and hispanics too.

   in this game its one white man shooting black people.

6. Pingback by LifeParticles.com » Black Bloggers React to Gamers Reacting to Resident Evil 5 Racism Charges on 3 August 2007:

   [...] the Young, Black Professionals Guide: Trying to talk about the sensitivities of race to a gaming demographic is extremely difficult. the [...]
7. 

   Comment by Seth on 3 August 2007:

   Keeping in mind the nature of the released content from Capcom, the game’s developer, this is an early teaser trailer, not necessarily depicting the entirety, scope or overall content of RE5.
   Resident Evil 4 took place in Spain, was quite fictional - as its sequel must also be - and featured a white male saving the (also white) American President’s daughter after she was captured by a cult that infected the locals with a zombie-like virus.
   As a freelance videogame journalist, I can’t recall any uproar from the Spanish blogosphere following a trailer from that game…
   It appears that Africa, or a region with inhabitants of comparable skin tone, has been chosen as the setting for this FICTIONAL piece of art and entertainment. If a New York Times Best-Selling novel was a thriller focused on similar content, would the auther, reviewers and reader base be labeled racist for condoning, allowing and propagating free speech?
   Obvious, yet seemingly unheard arguments aside, it’s a sad fact that since some of the most vocal gamers happen to have limited (usually to four letter words) vocabularies - largely due to their prepubescent ability to emulate uncut Chapelle’s Show episodes - and are 12-15 years old, the most vocal of gamers tend to react inappropriately and offensively. It shouldn’t be condoned, by any means, but to exploit the rants of the young, stupid, vocal minority of the gaming populous as a valid argument for the “scandalousness” of RE5’s content is, from a journalism and debate standpoint, callow and sad.
8. 

   Comment by Hias Wrba on 3 August 2007:

   One or two things I learned from the RE5-trailer debate.

   a) Ironically enough the defendants of the trailer (it’s not a game yet, everybody should keep that in mind) stress how important knowledge about the backstory of the series is, but fail to see what part the collective backstory of African Americans might play in their notion that this trailer appears to be racist.

   b) On the other hand all the people making statements about the pure amount of hateful kneejerk comments should keep a few factors in mind. I assume most of the commentators to be rather young and for that allone not very representative for the gaming demographic. On the net the most extreme opinions are usually the ones most fiercely promoted. Furthermore gamers have been under an enormous amount of public pressure lately. They are already frequently accused of being psychopathic, anti-social losers by the mainstream media. Tying them collectively to Columbine, like the follow-up poster on Black Looks did is not exactly helping to create an atmosphere where a reasonable debate is possible. So keep in mind you are mostly talking about and to kids who are already quite alienated by society. This may partly explain some of the crass reactions.

   c) People still have a big problem differentiating content and form, or imagery and storytelling in this case if you like. The critics of the trailer were largely talking about the imagery of the trailer. Which is obviously problematic, while the defendants all stressed aspects of the story. From their point of view there was no problem, they see these images in the context of the other games in the series.

   All in all everybody please calm down.
   Or don’t.
   Actually watching this is rather amusing.
9. 

   Comment by ybpreader on 3 August 2007:

   @ Seth the reason why blacklooks and other African bloggers don’t take as kindly to this as Spanish bloggers is because it is perpetuating a stereotype about Africa being the dark continent.

   When Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis came out, I remember a campaign by Nigerians to boycott the movie because of the painful stereotypical inaccuracies being portrayed in the film. I remember complaints about the movie, Interpreter with Nicole Kidman and even the Constant Gardener. My point is you probably did not hear about these complaints because the movies and Africans’ perceptions of them weren’t that important to you.

   As a gamer, you obviously are aware of our complaints because gaming is of interest to you.
10. 

    Comment by tempo on 3 August 2007:

    I am not white, I am not young, I am not American.

    The Gaming community is made up of milllions of people from all around the world. We are one of the most diverse communities that has ever existed. This is particularly true of the online gaming community, on online gaming servers you will find ever race represented from many countries spanning all continents.
    Our community comes together not because of race, not because of nationality, not because of age (25% of gamers being over 40), not because of sex (much of the online gaming community is women, see ‘2nd life’), and not because of sexual orientation (many gamers are gay). We come together in common interest.

    That’s right, you have the young gaming with the old(er), white people gaming with black people, men and women, Asian countries gaming with the EU, North Americans gaming with South Americans. Much like world sporting events like the Wolrd Cup, or the Olympics will bring together different nations in friendly competition, (note the recent Asian Cup; Iraq vs. Saudi Arabia, no violence there) we come together. The differences being, we are not divided by our nationalities and we do it 24-7, and on a personal level.

    We are a community without borders and without colours, the spirit and diversity of the gaming community is one that should be looked up to, a spirit and diversity other groups should strive toward.

    That we, as a community this rich and diverse, are regularly made the object of fear and loathing by those that do not understand us, and have no desire to, is what i find upsetting.

    ps. show me a community this large and diverse that doesn’t have a few jerks in it.
11. 

    Comment by MattF on 3 August 2007:

    “is it ok to make a game about arabs crashing planes into buildings to wreak havoc on a society?

    is it ok to make a game about white men kidnapping white women to earn points and make as much money as possible?

    is no one getting hurt by making a game about a asian kid who can only liberate his soul by shooting up a college campus and getting a body count above 30?”

    I’m sorry, but none of these seem to have anything to do with zombies. And honestly, I (and probably quite a few others, assuming I’m not in the extreme minority) didn’t really notice it as a racist thing until someone else decided to make it that way. I was concerned for what the heck was going on, and why this particular town was targetted for the virus and, knowing how well Capcom writes stories, was expecting a good explanation and an eventual Big Bad Guy to deal with.

    The game is about atrocity and horror, and up until now it hasn’t been a problem. Is it, as the blacklooks.org lady said, only okay for whites to be zombies?
12. 

    Comment by Ted Shaw on 3 August 2007:

    I will agree that you’re argument is much more well written than the others displayed against the upcoming game in the RE series, however the point is still mute here.

    The reason that many gamers reject these opinions, first and foremost, is that they are sick of Video Games being consistently criticized. Simply due to their popularity, games have become a prime target for nearly any social issue.

    The second reason behind the retaliation of the gaming community is due to the lack of understanding behind the games. Like many classic zombie films (Dawn of the Dead, NoTLD) the Resident Evil series has always had a plot with political backdrop to it. In fact the entire reason that many of the monsters in the games exist is due to the evils of a billion dollar corporation. And since RE4, the series has been taken outside America and into the rest of the world. Now the latest installment will take place in Africa and already is looks as if it will continue the same pattern of the past games (with the evil corporation Umbrella having something to do with the horrors) while also having some kind of political backdrop to it, most likely genocide and/or a medical epidemic, similar to what is ACTUALLY happening in Africa.

    The game setting is not in anyway, an attempt to spread hate or racism, but rather bring insight into current events while continuing the story from the past games (Note: RE5 was originally supposed to take place in the Middle East)
13. 

    Comment by Neeneko on 3 August 2007:

    I think one of the things that has been lost in this debate…. Yes, there were quite a few gamers who went _way_ over the line and showed significant immaturity, but frankly I saw that going in both directions.

    From the ‘other direction’, the original poster (and many of her supporters) never even stop to consider that the people they are stereotyping have feelings too. When you start your argument by attacking a group (that is pretty used to being attacked and misunderstood at this point… for instance, Columbine is STILL being blamed on gamers, as are the DC shootings and various cop killings) then yes, they are going to respond pretty badly.

    Empathy is a two way street, as is respect. I am not speaking about knowledge of the game, or RE, but of the pretty nasty characterizations of the community. I do not believe many of the people lashing out have even figured that part out yet.

    Also keep in mind, the ‘core demographic’ of gamers is mid-thirties college educated, and splits pretty evenly between male and female. The idea that gamers are teenage males is another stereotype that we are pretty sensitive to.

    BTW - starting a post with text like ‘assault by fanboys’, think about how you would feel if someone started a post ’stupid n****** attack game blog’. you would be very reasonably offended, wouldn’t you?
14. 

    Comment by Luke Gardiner on 3 August 2007:

    Allow me to introduce myself, I am Luke Gardiner I am a Indian Man of Muslim descent, I am currently attending Melbourne University studying Journalism, my farther and mother, and their father’s and mothers before them have been subjected racism most foul. Being a child in Mumbai during the terrible “Bombay riots” where 900 people where killed, most of them Muslims, dragged from their houses and beaten or burnt to death. Including my late uncle who was a local business owner.
    Now on to the topic, as someone who has been personally experienced racism and attempted genocide, I do have to agree with the comments of *Some* of the people on Miss Platt’s blog. The game “Resident Evil” does depict imagery that can be interpreted as racist and video games typically display actions of violence and aggression. In my past of playing video games (I like to think of myself as a fairly avid gamer) I have seen games based in the Middle East, re-enacting American raids on Iraqi houses or the Afghan resistance during the cold war. Games based in Europe where you play as a local mobster cold heartedly opening fire into a crowded restaurant. Games based in south America where you play as a local militia man taking part in a violent overthrow of a local government. And countless games based in North America depicting all sorts of acts of unnecessary virtual violence.
    After all this to be perfectly honest I have never seen a game take place in Africa, perhaps this is because the violence is a bit “too real” with acts of genocide and mass murder a more common occurrence than in most other parts of the world. But with all these games based all over the world many of which re-enacting horrible acts of violence such as the holocaust or the attempted genocide of the Afghan people during the cold war. Do you really think that Africa should remain taboo? Resident evil does not even depict real world violence (I don’t remember there ever being a time where the zombie virus infected anywhere, let alone a town in Africa.) so why should Africa be off-limits? Personally I think that the link between the “Gungans” in Star Wars Episode One and the early 1900 racist stereotype of African Americans far more valid and disgusting. Also a comment was made about this game being marketed to teenagers and children; as far as I know the game was only announced a few months ago and no marketing campaign has even been whispered of.
    Thanks for your time.
    I hope you find this constructive.
    (Also, pardon any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, its 1am in Australia and I am vary tired.)
    Luke B Gardiner
15. 

    Comment by Michael J. M. on 3 August 2007:

    blacklooks,
    I believe there is a dark side to everything. In fact, I believe you should actually fine tune your assertion to people on the Internet. More specifically, socially inept and rude people. These socially inept people obviously have a hard time getting along with people in real life…so the barricaded themselves indoors. And what is there to do in doors? Play games.

    My point is the group of jerks lumped in your “dark side of gaming” are really just socially inept, basement dwelling jerks that happen to spend their free time playing video games because they can’t get along anywhere else.

    Please, PLEASE do not lump all “gamers” into this category. I love to play video games, I am married and have a fantastic job…and I did find all those terrible, horrific racist remarks infuriating. But then again, I expected because that is the Internet for you: A bunch of 14 year old assholes that operate without parent supervision.
16. 

    Comment by Neeneko on 3 August 2007:

    @Luke Gardiner
    Excellent first person perspective there.

    I’ve actually found that taking on all these roles in games, of horrible things done in the past or fantasy, to actually be kinda a good thing long term. There is a certain power to taking something bad and turning it into something controlled and positive.

    As for games in Africa. I think Mercenaries 2 was originally going to be placed in Sudan but they got cold feet and moved to South America. Africa does seem to have been rather taboo in the game industry. Which is a pity since that really does label Africa as ’something fundamentally different then everyone else’, which is bad.

    Though it should be noted that the Civ series of games does support both Africa and historic leaders from the region. (it now also support slavery, which was a risky thing for them to include)
17. 

    Comment by Kirk on 3 August 2007:

    In an answer to your question, yes you are overreacting. As it stands right now, you are efectively asking for a moratoriam on africans being portrayed in any medium because of an irelavent historical context. Yes African Americans were treated horribly, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a movie over the brave acts of soldiers (ie Black Hawk Down). Would it have been okay if we placed the situation in a make believe country filled with white people, destroying the historical context of the movie.

    Or look at this another way, how sensitive do we have to be for every one (you included) to be sensitive to the gamers needs. Gamers don’t see this as racist, nor do the creators, yet here you are insisting that it is (when in fact in no way is it). So if it isn’t racist, then how can you be so insensitive to call it such?

    As a gamer I have to ask, where is my slice of the sensitivity pie. Show some sensitivity to gamers and have a little respect.
18. 

    Comment by Ted Shaw on 3 August 2007:

    Another point I forgot to make in my first response was that in RE4, despite the majority of the local population, there were allies that you met throughout the game who were from the ethnicity as you’re enemies.

    I’m guessing that this will be the case in RE5, where most of the opposition will consist of local African villagers (most likely consumed by a disease or a disorder) and there will be African allies as well.
19. 

    Comment by blacklooks on 3 August 2007:

    Michael J @ I take your point. However the abusers and as you call them “knee jerkers” prevented me or Kym from responding to the thought out responses (I have already said this in my first comment). These people attacked my blog by flaming me and shutting it down three times. No one here is responding to that. Whether one agrees with the two posts made on Black Looks or not surely it is pretty obvious why we were unable to enter into a discussion.

    It may well be that the more disgusting comments may have come from 12-15 year olds but then again they may not have - we have no way of knowing and even if they did does that make them any less offensive?

    Neeneko @ “Yes, there were quite a few gamers who went _way_ over the line and showed significant immaturity, but frankly I saw that going in both directions.

    How could you see that going in both directions?

    Out of over 300 comments only FOUR responses were made by non-gamers. Kym made one; I wrote a back up post + I closed the comments on the original post; and two other female bloggers each made a comment. This can hardly be called “going in both directions”

    The reference to Columbine was unfortunate and I accept responsibility for that because it is my blog - but try to put yourself on the receiving end of bitch, whore nigger, and a host nonsensical two liner derogatory comments on Africa and Africans and maybe you can understand why that reference was made.

    It is unfortunate that very few here are looking at this from the point of view of the sheer intensity and viciousness of the response to this post. It should also be noted that unlike other sites I have not deleted any of these comments so everyone can made their own minds about the nature of this attack. And that is what this was.

    Whether the game is racist or not is a matter of opinion - that should not be a reason to unleash the kind of response that I received on my blog which taken has a whole I find very disturbing. If I had not shut down all comments (not just on this post but on the whole blog) who knows how many more 100s of the same I would have received.

    The irony of it all is that after criticising Kym for calling the game racist - a very good percentage of comments were exactly that not to speak of the misogynist ones
20. 

    Comment by Dark_Alexander on 3 August 2007:

    “5. Kym Platt

    August 1st, 2007 at 5:49 am

    R_N,

    Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth.”
    http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/resident_evil_5.html

    This response by the author was posted before the DISGUSTING AND FOUL comments were made. In other words, there was no provocation. You can’t make a comment like this then run and hide. It should be mentioned that many black gamers are defending this game:

    AeonFlook
    Aug 3rd 2007
    11:13AM

    As a black woman who actually grew up playing Resident Evil (you know the one with the white Zombies), I don’t think RE5 set in Africa is racist. I think that it may have a slight resemblence to the current and historic plight of Africans, but this fifth installment is just carrying on the original story. I don’t think that when Capcom made the first RE that were thinking “oh yea, after the people get used to killing white American Zombies, we’ll set it in Africa where it was really meant to be!” I’m not knocking the blogger’s opinions or feeling, I fully repect her for having to courage to speak her mind and exercise her right to free speech. I do however recognize that although the game itself is not racist, some of the comments that came from people in support of this game are. I hope that Capcom decides to put the game out on the market. I think that it is only fitting that as they decide to branch out that they move to other continents. From North America to Europe to Africa. Who knows the next one could be set in Japan herself! We’ll all just have to see wont we!?
    http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/01/african-womens-blog-upset-over-resident-evil-5/10#comments
21. 

    Comment by Dark_Alexander on 3 August 2007:

    RESIDENT EVIL - THE 1 MINUTE HISTORY

    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 - Spanish people are zombies
    Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles - white people are zombies
    Resident Evil 5 - African zombies.

    Kim Platt admitted to having NO knowledge of the Resident Evil series or video games, outside of solitare. Now you are more informed.
22. 

    Comment by father time on 3 August 2007:

    I am a regular poster at gamepolitics and I feel I should explain myself, and the site.

    Usually the topics at gamepolitics garner serious discussion with infinitesimally small amounts of sailor talk, and in general usually less than 100 replies (unless it’s about a certain person but that’s a different story). Anyway they post this story and we get hundreds of people who no one has ever seen before come out of the blue and foul the comments with racist statements (from both blacks and whites) and general stupidity, we get large amounts of redundancy (which seems to accompany every story but not to this extent), and what ends up happening is our image is trashed thanks to some first time posters who will not return unless this story rises from the dead. So please don’t judge us too harshly.

    Also I bet you probably would’ve seen the same types of comments over the Imus ordeal so don’t think it’s purely gamers who react this way.
23. 

    Comment by father time on 3 August 2007:

    Also as has mentioned before you must also realise the powerful influence of anonymity of the internet, I can if i wanted to go to a sight psot a username I never use, give out a fake name, and pretened to be pro-life, meanwhile i can then go to another website and pretend to be pro-choice, or more relevantly I can pretend to be black, african or a REAL racist, when I’m not any of those things.
24. 

    Comment by father time on 3 August 2007:

    @blacklooks

    That reference to columbine was still very uncalled for regardless of what type of comments you recieved, to compare a very large group of people to two psychotic individuals who think mass murder can solve their problems is despicable. Also it was a very unwise thing to do since it could’ve (and might’ve) unleashed a shitstorm (pardon my french), since all of us hate being compared to murderers, and all of us hate the repeated lie that video games were the inspiration for columbine.
25. 

    Comment by tempo on 3 August 2007:

    Black looks,

    I think what Neeneko meant by the ‘going in both directions’ was the ’significant immaturity’ for example, Kym’s response that all zombies should be white, which is not the response of someone that wants rational discourse, but a response of someone that want to antagonize people. As well as the stereotyping of gamers as pimply faced teenagers, and psychopathic killers just waiting to go on a killing spree… ect.

    These are the comments of ’significant immaturity’ I believe that sparked the outrage of the gaming community, and the unfortunate comments from a minority within this community.
    These are the things that angered people, I know that some of the language used was racist and negative words used to describe women. But, I don’t think the anger came from the fact that Kym is a women, or that Kym is black, but rather because of the things she was saying. I think these words were chosen because the jerks using them know that they are hurtful. Although it is probable some of the posters are racist and sexist, the trolls are experts at being hurtful and know just how to do it, and take some sort of sick pride in it… this is sad.

    Thank you for acknowledging the unfortunatness of the Columbine remarks, these are the kind of things that really upset the gaming community as we’ve been taking the heat for these two psychopaths since, it is always upsetting when the actions of a few can speak for a whole community. But, I think Kym knew this.

    I’m sorry that your blog went down a few times, i don’t think this was intentional, but rather the result of increased traffic. I’m am also sorry that you’ve had to disable the comments on your whole site! That is terrible, I hope this dies down soon and you can return to business as usual. I am also sorry about these comments that hurt you and Kym, unfortunately that is probably what the posters of those comments wanted, so…

    Thank you for coming here to discuss these things, I also think they are important.

    Thanks also to Fredric for allowing us to have a reasonable discussion on this blog, it is only through discussion and understanding that the world can become a better place.
26. 

    Comment by blacklooks on 3 August 2007:

    fathertime@ i have already dealt with the reference to columbine in my last comment so what is your point now? To make more of it? To stir it up and have the shit hit the fan? What exactly are you trying to do? I said it was unfortunate - i will reinforce that by saying it is regrettable.
27. 

    Comment by blacklooks on 3 August 2007:

    tempo@ Thank you - you are the only person out of 100s across blogland that has expressed any sympathy for some of nastiness that came out of Kym’s post.

    One last point referring to fathertime’s comment on anonymity. I think you are spot on. The majority of comments come anonymously and people can identify as who they like and hide behind their words. How easy it is to say anything when you are hiding behind a fake name!

    None of US at BLs is in hiding which of course makes us more vulnerable but that is the price you pay for being open and out.
28. 

    Comment by tempo on 3 August 2007:

    I think that is why people like that are known as ‘Trolls’

    They are the ugly little things hiding under their bridges.
29. 

    Comment by blacklooks on 3 August 2007:

    Black Alexander @ “There was no provocation at this point” - and so?

    The point is WE did not run and hide. I am here discussing this now - I dont have to be here, I chose to be here. WE (BLs) are the ones using our real names and have done so ever since we started blogging. We cannot therefore run and hide (see my previous comment). We have blogs with our names on leaving us open to any harrassment from anyone at any time. So please do not accuse us of running and hiding.

    Thanks to Frederic for allowing a sane space to discuss this.
30. 

    Comment by jlodus on 3 August 2007:

    @blacklooks - Before I start with my intended post, I wanted to point out that it is possible that father time did not see your message before posting his so he may have just been reiterating, but not actually trying to “stir it up” The people that wanted to stir it up were the ones that were being rude and inflammatory and that also regrettable.

    Continuing on, I have been looking for a venue to bring up some points in a place that lacked the flame wars that have been going on because they are not productive.

    I think there was a huge misunderstanding in demographics on both sides. For gamers I like to think that there are 2 groups within the community, those that are mature and those that are not. Briefly, the immature ones (regardless of actual age) tend to be the ones with the knee jerk responses and inflammatory posts, within the community we call them “trolls”. Since I know you are not familiar with this community, my best advice is do not feed the trolls. They are mainly looking to incite and anger people and the community generally ignores them. If you give them attention, they will keep making noise.

    I think one of the other problems, was that as both Kym and yourself said, you are not gamers. So it is safe to assume you are not familiar with their actions and responses. I am not surprised this happened, but I have seen it time and again on other forums. On the same note, Kym mention that she had never seen an outcry like this before, but in all fairness, the gaming community is one of the most technically skilled and apt so they are the quickest to pick up on these things (hence how fast everything went awry).

    Now this is where things get long winded. And I know this comes from not knowing how the community acts and reacts, so I am not saying you were wrong in your actions, both of you simply did not know. No big deal in my book (but the immature crowd detracted from making a productive discussion and worsened the image for gamers in one fell swoop). In any case, people were upset for one that Kym made the statements without prior knowledge of the game and it’s history. Of course, for this community, research and proof are paramount. They do not like when people take things out of context, politicians and anti-game activists have been doing this for years. Capcom itself is a very reputable producer of games and would not intentionally insult or degrade anyone to my knowledge.

    That being said, there are some facts that of course will get misconstrued and of course generalizations of gamers. We have been stereotyped for a long time. People still think of geeks and gamers as the D&D table top kids with bad hygiene and no social skills. Maybe that was the case in the 80’s, but not now. And some gamers are extremely sensitive to this fact since it is one of the biggest stereotypes. Again, it is simply not knowing the community.

    I also think that the gamers for the most part do not see it for your perspective. I personally have always tried to see things from every perspective and understand all angles. Oddly enough, a behavior I picked up from playing puzzle games. I can understand Kym’s and your perspective to some extent (as I do not know you personally it is a lot hard for me to understand in more depth). The interesting thing (and it has been said before) was that the gaming community is immensely diverse. For the most part, the majority if not all mature gamers are people that do not judge. They are very color-blind. I have played games with all colors, shapes, and sizes of people, monsters and characters that I am fully aware its not what matters on the outside. I would like to think that the majority of mature gamers understand this.

    Obviously, I cannot speak for everyone, but just from my observations and experiences within this community. I apologize for the length as I know this will be a long read and I know I missed a lot of the points I wanted to make, perhaps later. There is another good post I would like to point: http://lawofthegame.blogspot.com/2007/08/resident-evil-5-racism-issue.html
    There are plenty of good discussions going on (if you ignore the immature crowd). Gamepolitics.com is another good place to check out as well.
31. 

    Comment by Dark_Alexander on 3 August 2007:

    @blacklooks
    It should be mentioned that Kim Platt did acknowledge her comment about how: zombies should be white people from now on.

    My run and hide comment was the wrong choice of words. I meant you can’t make a comment like that and then be shocked, offended, or hurt by the backlash.

    BTW, jlodus your remarks were spot on. Hopefully, your post will help non-gamers have a better understanding of us.

    Black Alexander @ “There was no provocation at this point” - and so?

    Two things sir/maam:
    1. The name is Dark_Alexander.
    2. At the time she made the white zombie comment, she showed a sign of hypocrisy. It seemed she wanted racial sensitivity, yet she had no problem being insensitive herself. Hipocrisy is another thing that intelligent non-troll gamers will not let slide without a challenge.

    Thank you for your time.
32. 

    Comment by Low Frost on 3 August 2007:

    Okay then. I say the preview for Resident Evil 5 and the first thing I thought was “This will be bad.” I am a gamer. I’ve played Resident Evil since I was a teen. I am a young, black male in America. And I know quite well what people on the internet have said about this entire ordeal, good and bad. Most don’t seem to see the problem, so here is a bullet point.
    1. The developers of the game itself. Japan is world reknown for it’s closed-minded, xenophobic view of the rest of the world. This shows in the media they create and statements by their politicians (see 1989, Japanese Prime Minister). Japanese media keeps a stable of the worst stereotypes of cultures everywhere and freely dispense them without care or concern. They will not offend themselves, or the caucasians who make up the bulk of their profits, but others see easily what they do not. Nintendo recieved a harsh critique when in one of their pilot Zelda games, the Muslim call to prayer was featured in the backround music (this was removed when localised for the U.S.). Capcom again recently had been called on a game preview where a creature clearly called out “Allah-u Ackba” (God is great in Arabic) before eating a cannabalistic stew (this has also been removed). Muslims and Black people are not the only ones who “cry and complain” about “supposed” insensitivity. Most people have not heard of Magna Carta: The Crimson Stigmata. Why? Because the group who brought this game over to the U.S. quickly realized the ramifications of trivializing the crucifixion of the Christ and changed it to something else. Or the Metal Slug series about the rebirth of Hitler and the Third Reich. All refererences to Hitler was removed and the prevalent swastikas where changed. It seems to depend on who you insult that results are made.
    2. The developers are entirely ignorant of the trials of black people in America as evidenced by the line “bright eyes, simian strength and room temperature i.q.”, all of which are popular stereotypes of African peoples in general. As mentioned before, the scenes showed hearken too closely to real-life episodes of violence and terror experienced by African peoples the world over.
    Long story short, I do not belive that the game is racist, nor do I think that the makers went the distance to insult African peoples. Ignorant, yes. Blatant racists, not so much. These games have always been about killing monsters that look human and beyond the violence, few complaints have been made. The 4th game has been referenced often as a rebuttal to the racism argument, and would be considerable if the developers had not gone on the record and said that the game takes place in eastern Europe and failing that, Spaniards are caucasian Europeans, not the mixed blood Hispanics of the Americas. All of this could of been avoided had the companies spent some time with their pr people and got the hint that someone may take offense to what you have planned to show and say, especially black people in America who still fight to overcome centuries-old stereotypes and will not tolerate them being proported any longer. That said, the majority of these whistle-blowers need to CALM DOWN. Many have admitted knowing nothing about what they speak of on the subject, and rob others of credibility by crying wolf so quickly. Do some digging, get the facts right and if there is a problem, we will deal with it. And yes, the majority of the ignorant rabble who have posted crude comments on many of these websites do so due to their imagined anonimity and willful desire to hurt others. They do not, however, make up the majority of gamers like me, nor should it be construed as such, as it is as foolish and base as those who you lambast. I would like to see more of this game before my view is set, as should others. The game is not even near release and more information shall be availible later. /comment
33. 

    Comment by Shade on 3 August 2007:

    I find this kind of funny.

    But I think the people claiming racism should be ashamed.

    People don’t like whats different than them, in anything really. Culture, language, skin color, hair, eyes, music, even art. You can of course be around anything long enough to absorb it into your perspective and then its no longer different.

    But in this case theres a difference in skin color: A white man is shooting black people. Oddly its not the shooting that causes the controversy, its the difference in skin color. If it was a black man shooting black people it could be considered fine.

    Lets take out the context of the video, zombies. Just look at the fact the a white man is shooting black people. Once again assume the shooting it self is not a problem, hes shooting them for a reason. The thing I find funny is that people are assuming the reason he’s shooting them is BECAUSE they are black.

    They drew that conclusion themselves. Its odd that they assume that a white man automatically would shoot someone because of their skin color. Actually isn’t that racism? They are assuming he’s shooting because they are black, not because they are endangering his life, or attacking them, or even that they are zombies.

    But there is the argument on how black people are portrayed, once again they take out the context: as savage and vicious. So lets look at how the white man is portrayed taking out the context: Cruel, inhuman, shooting those with no weapons or weapons less than his own.

    I find it funny and very sad that those who complain of racism are the most racist of all.

    The day that no one take race into account in their thought process, whether in action OR judging the action, will be the day racism dies.
34. 

    Comment by daithi o hadhmhaill on 3 August 2007:

    Unfortunately, there are a lot of idiots out there. However, I wouldn’t be of the opinion that the percentage of idiot gamers is greater than the percentage of idiot non-gamers. I think this whole affair has been exagerated and taken completely out of context. For those disturbed by the imagery of this game and who are crying, ‘racist,’ a little bit of research before such sensationalism wouldn’t go amiss. I’m an Irishman, and I have to admit, having watched the trailer, I made no differentiation between the colour of the protagonists’ and antagonists’ skin. What I saw was what I have come to expect from the Resident Evil franchise. You shoot zombies. Black, White, Asian. Why should it matter? To censor the game or to exempt Africans based on the colour of their skin is a form of racism in itself. I can understand the offence people might experience watching the trailer and having no prior knowledge of what the game is about. That is why context is such an important point. If the game was set in Ireland and featured an English protagonist mowing down hordes of Irish zombies, i would still play this game, and not be offended by it. I would hope that the majority of people would have the intelligence to realise that the game occurs within a certain context, and is not racially motivated.
35. 

    Comment by Dais on 3 August 2007:

    The bloggers who are covering this are failing to understand one simple thing: the most hateful, offensive and racist comments aren’t coming from “gamers”, they’re coming from “internet users”. The two groups certainly crossover to a large degree, but the worst stuff isn’t coming from ignorant and idiotic gamers (although there are many of those) - it’s coming from internet users who are total assholes and are just posting these things to stir up shit.

    Just step back and think about this a moment. The people who responded to the various blog posts are an absurdly small fraction of the total gaming population out there, and the people who responded an offensive/aggressive manner are a fraction of that. And a part of that fraction is made up of people who don’t actually care about the issue at all - they simply see the chance to take what is already a mess and turn it into a shitstorm. While it’s true that a large amount of gamers on the internet are, in fact, close-minded young white males, you’re making a very foolish assumption when you imply that the offensive reactions come from gamers in general, as opposed to plain and simple internet trolls.

    Please, reconsider some of your statements. You writing off gamers in general as being ignorant and offensive is as bad as when others write off bloggers interested interested in racial issues as being attention-starved sensationalists that are prone to overrreaction. Sometimes that assessment of another’s character is correct, but quite frequently it is wrong, due to short-sighted thinking on the part of the person doing the judging.
36. 

    Comment by Michael J. M. on 3 August 2007:

    @ blacklooks

    You are correct and I was in no way trying to detract from the horrific and insensitive comments; to be completely honest, I wanted to separate myself, as a gamer (meaning I play as much as I can before the wife gets home) from horde that was unleashed. What your site experienced was definitely the “dark side” of the Internet.

    Although I do fall into the crowd that disagrees with some of the opinions expressed by the blog, I realize it really is a matter of opinion and everyone has the right to their own opinion and the ability to express it. Unfortunately, moronic 13 year old social rejects and their 40 year old counter parts with the same mentality exercise that same freedom too. Which to be frank, sucks.

    At this juncture, I choose not to debate or discuss the RE5 opinions not because of the opposing opinions brought forth, but because the amazing number of jerkoffs that have completely ruined this topic all together and to be completely honest once again, I really do not want to be associated with the majority “fight fire with fire” group when it comes to racial hate in any form.
37. 

    Comment by Perry on 3 August 2007:

    As an African-American gamer with dreams of working in games, I have always been concerned with the representation of blacks in gaming. This is mainly due to the fact that we are rarely featured in video games at all (no racist claim here though. I actually blame this on the low number of blacks working in the industry).

    All that said, when I saw the RE5 trailer, my initial reaction was “This is awesome! But man, the game industry is gonna get some crap over this.” Certainly didnt expect it to happen so quickly, though.

    My advice to both sides in this issue would be to take deep breath and try to see things from the other point of view, because so far, all I see are knee-jerk reactions being responded to with more knee rections, and then the process repeating itself.

    To my fellow gamers, understand that this kind of imagery (blacks being seen as savages, a white authority killing said “savages, etc.) can be very paining to some. After all, racism wasn’t just an idea in the US, it was the law. Slaves meant as much as cattle here. And of course, there were still many years of abuse and discrimination that followed slavery. On top of all this, the periods of portrayal of Africa as a “wild continent” doesn’t help RE5’s case.

    And I will certainly say that the gamers spewing vulgar insults at this woman disgust me. Seriously, you lot are doing more harm to gaming than ‘ol Jack Thompson ever could. By constantly responding to any critcism of games with idiotic comments (many racially and sexually charged), you are bolstering the perception of gamers as angry, immature fools with no grip on reality. How do you except people to change their preceptions of gaming if you continually reaffirm what they already believe?

    As for Ms. Platt (and even for the writer of this blog), you must understand the reasons gamers get so angry at incidents like this. While I will not condone the vulgar responses, I will say they are steeped in history.

    In a comment on her personal site, Ms. Platt made a reference to Columbine when discussing the angry responses she recieved. Columbine is a very sensitive subject for gamers. After that, many people who were already considered outcasts were victims of even more public ire, mostly because they play games. Students were suspended/expelled from school and forced into consuling. The interent is full of stories of kids, who before were just picked on, were now being out right beaten up. It was as if Columbine made it okay to hate those who were different because their diffences made them “dangerous”. So wether Ms. Platt made that comment as a joke or not is irrelevant, because it made a hurtful and ignorant stereotype. And while I won’t put this kind of thing on the level of the abuse blacks have suffered, I will ask this of Ms. Platt: Shouldn’t we, as African-Americans, be able to understand and sympathize with a group of people who have been insulted, attacked, and hated simply for being different?

    One more thing to Ms. Platt: games are constantly being viewed as the root of evil be the media. So we’ve grown accostumed(sp?) become a little defensive when people bash games for reasons we don’t understand. It becomes more problematic when the one calling foul makes it clear they know next to nothing about games. Stereotyping gamers and also highlighting the worst aspects of gaming culture as though it was the representative also won’t earn you any points. This is mainly because these are behavoirs we see often from an attorney named Jack Thompson, who has spent years doing numerous thing to make gamers hate him. In fact, you could say he is to anti-gamers what the morons who called Ms. Platt the “n” word is to gamers.

    I’ll only hope is that everyone will get out all their anger and knee-jerking out of the way now. That way, when RE5 is released in 09,we will be able to have a more constructive conversation about this topic. =)
38. 

    Comment by The Central Scrutinizer on 3 August 2007:

    >>”the majority of readers are young white males who are either too immature to have a clean conversation about it or too logical to draw accurate comparisons.”
39. 

    Comment by Hannah on 3 August 2007:

    Disclaimer: I’m white. Canadian by birth, British by blood, brown hair and blue eyes… the works. I live in a city where blacks make up less than 1% of the population.

    While I can understand that white on black violence is a sensitive topic for many, I must admit that I never would have expected the black community to overreact to this extent. To me, a zombie is a zombie, and a conspicuous lack of black zombies is more an indication of racism than their presence in a game that appears to be set in Africa.

    Also, before I forget, I do have one question for the blacklooks people if they’re still around: do you guys actually hate white people? Maybe I’m imagining things, or maybe all this hypersensitivity is rubbing off, but I’m noticing an awful lot of unfriendliness toward people of my race. Does the pallor of my skin really mark me as a hateful, racist monster just *waiting* for an opportunity to plunge North America back into the 1800s? I certainly hope not. Sure, my ancestors probably did some horrible things (colonialism and all), but it’s hardly fair to play into that old stereotype and assume that every white person on the internet is against you purely because they disagree with your (undeniably racist) assertion that only white video game characters/zombies should be allowed to die.
40. 

    Comment by Luke Gardiner on 3 August 2007:

    @Neeneko
    I wholeheartedly agree with your comments, I feel that if in games like “Left Behind” where only men can be recruited as soldiers and women can only be medics or entertainers, or the media’s portrayal of Muslims are far more detrimental to society and racial stereotypes as a whole than African zombies. As for the Civilisation games; these are games that pride themselves on being civilisation simulators and historically it is always a civilisation of people who are capable of truly evil things as opposed to a single person. This begs the question of how in depth your ability to perpetrate some of these monstrosity should become, should you be able to commit genocide? Or even racial cleansing? If actions such as re-enacting the Columbine massacre in “Super Columbine Massacre RPG” or simulating stalking and rape of a young girl at a Japanese train station in “Illusions’s Rapeplay” are available to the mainstream and cruse relatively under the radar, why should a game that just happens to have African zombies come under such scrutiny.

    @Hannah
    “a conspicuous lack of black zombies is more an indication of racism”

    This is a vary good point point. It raises the question that how far should racial sensitivity go? I think that a certain amount of racial playfulness is healthy, (ala Chappell show) but as David Chappell felt himself playfulness can often turn into a unhealthy comfort with racism. On the other hand a society that is so scared of being racist and so concerned about racial sensitivity is inherently racist itself. A society without racism is a society of racial equality where people are not concerned with treating one race of people better or worse than the other, but in the society that we live in now, we are so concerned with offending someone of a minority that it borders on special treatment.
    Just a thought for you to digest
    Luke B Gardiner
41. 

    Comment by Mike on 4 August 2007:

    I’d just like to point out a couple quick things. Before I start, I’d like to apologize for not using my full real name. It’s a personal choice based on bad experience.

    I think both sides have good points. A major part of this comes down to perception and incomplete information. Not to say that complete information woud definitely change anything though. To much of the intended audience, it’s an arc in a much larger story line. To the rest of the world, it could be considered at least racially insensitive.

    About that intended audience too. It is not meant for kids. Despite whose hands it gets into, it is meant for people 17 or older. Anyone younger than that isn’t really supposed to have it and therefore shouldn’t really be saying a whole lot.

    Finally, all of the unintelligent, offensive responses are not representative of the gaming community for another reason. As stated before, the gaming community is vast and diverse. Somewhere over half its members are adults. However, most gamers cruising the internet are not. That is where the poor representation is.

    Honestly, I dread this reaching the main-stream media, simply because it’ll become even more of a circus. The analysts they usually have are not well-versed in video games. Add to that the average person not knowing much other than what the media generally tells them and the entire discussion willt devolve entirely.

    I really hope some kind of compromise can be met. I’d hate to see this turned into one more mud-slinging match with no one coming out the better. Gamers aren’t going to survive many more blows to credibility.
42. 

    Comment by Xantar on 4 August 2007:

    I’m not using my real name either although if you e-mail me you will see my real name in the e-mail address. That’s just force of habit more than anything else.

    Anyway, to answer the original question: is this blogger overreacting? Well, there are a couple of issues here.

    First and foremost, Kym Platt made a poorly-written, poorly-reasoned, counterproductive post. I’m not going to mince words about that. As has been pointed out in several comments here already, Ms. Platt demonstrated fundamental ignorance about Resident Evil games and about videogames in general. And when you are writing about something in a public forum and making an argument about it (especially a political one), you have a responsibility to be informed about the subject and show some sensitivity to your likely audience. I am an Asian man, and if I were to get up in a public forum and address a mostly black audience about issues of racism, you would expect the same fundamental courtesy from me. And if I were to imply (for example) that all black people love violent rap music and are loudmouths, the audience would jump on me and justifiably so.

    Ms. Platt has a right to her feelings and to express her opinions however she likes them in any public forum that will let her, but just as videogames have a responsibility to draw a line and show some sensitivity in their subject matter, so too did Ms. Platt have a responsibility to post her thoughts in a way that would encourage reasonable discussion, particularly if she wanted videogamers reading her post to take her seriously. And I cannot stress how badly I think she abdicated that responsibility. And it didn’t help when she followed up by commenting that she thought all zombies henceforth should be white—with no further explanation or reasoning behind that assertion. Did she seriously think this was the sort of behavior that would promote dialogue and get people to see each other’s point of view? And if Ms. Platt wasn’t trying to start up a reasonable conversation about the imagery of the game, then what exactly was she trying to accomplish?

    I do not in any way condone the immature comments by internet trolls who flooded the BlackLooks blog. Such comments fundamentally disgust me and always have. At the same time, I have seen no acknowledgement by Ms. Platt that she had a responsibility to her readers. In taking on a subject fraught with pitfalls and charged with emotional history (on both sides), she screwed up about as badly as it’s possible to screw up. And rather than promote some thoughtfulness and do her small part to improve race relations, Ms. Platt has instead set the process back by convincing several undeniably racist people that since they don’t buy into her argument, they must not be racist. As far as I can tell, she has refused to recognize this and prefers to single out the worst, most unrepresentative comments to try to demonstrate that she’s under siege.

    Now with that said, I’ll just turn a few words to Resident Evil 5. I tend to draw a distinction between what’s “offensive” and what’s “racist.” In my view, plenty of things are offensive to somebody. To demonstrate that something is racist (or at least racially ignorant) is another thing altogether. To use me as an example, I’ll remind you that I’m Asian. Specifically, I’m Vietnamese. My family and I do not have a happy history with Communism, to say the least. Seeing any flag with a red background and yellow stars brings up very unhappy memories for many people in my family (less so for me since I’m much younger). There are many images in the media which my grandparents or my parents find hurtful but which the American mainstream generally wouldn’t give a second thought about. Take for example an early scene from the first season of 24 in which Korean intelligence agents are torturing and interrogating another Korean man. To most people, this is somewhat brainless entertainment. To many people in my family, this is a real event that they experienced.

    But that doesn’t mean the scene was racist or written by racist people. It doesn’t even necessarily mean that it was insensitive. And although my family and I cannot control our emotional reactions to these and other scenes, we can control how we choose to respond to them. We can simply turn away and refuse to watch. We can try to engage the creators themselves in a conversation (for a TV show, this is obviously impractical, but when confronted with students parading around in uniform at school who call each other “comrade,” this can be effective). Or we can air our grievances loudly in a public forum. In my experience, this last tactic almost never accomplishes anything useful.

    When talking about race, it is important to remember that people nowadays all want more or less the same thing: peace and understanding between people of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The question then becomes how we get there, and to that end, what is most important is not being right but doing right as well.
43. 

    Comment by Kizeesh on 4 August 2007:

    I note that Blacklooks has still yet to clarify or to renounce her comment that all Zombies should be white.
    And yet she is supposedly not hiding? Then why hasn’t she explained why she’d post such s derogatory, insulting and racially offensive statement after a post about racial stereotyping in games?
    I suggent that it may in fact be because she had a poorly thought out argument and in fact sees only the racism contained within herself reflected in all around her.
    Thankyou and goodnight,
44. 

    Comment by guest on 4 August 2007:

    Xantar, it seems your conclusion is blurry and does not side with any. It’s like you are just practising your writing skills.
    @ BlackLooks, have you even bothered to read all the points of the intellectual defenses? I am very interested in a thorough response, perhaps you should make a new page for that instead of making the excuse that you can’t because Kym’s page is clogged by trollers?
45. 

    Comment by Xantar on 5 August 2007:

    #44

    Why should my “conclusion” side with anyone in particular? My whole point is that polarizing people and making them take sides against each other is exactly what we don’t want to happen in a conversation about race. It accomplishes nothing except to get people mad at each other.

    I wasn’t offended by the trailer to Resident Evil 5. I can understand where some people would find its imagery troublesome, but I cannot pretend to be disturbed by it. That would just be hypocritical. And moreover, the distinction I was trying to make in the end is that just because somebody got offended doesn’t mean the trailer or the videogame is racist. The two are entirely different things, and all too often, I feel that people conflate these two ideas when talking about racism as if to say, “Because it offended me for reasons of race, it must be racist.” That just doesn’t work.
46. 

    Comment by c0dec on 5 August 2007:

    i am african, i am a gamer, heck i work in the games industry. i find sokari’s post rather ignorant. yet, based on history, i can understand how touchy this topic can be (especially for africans).
47. 

    Comment by Jinx on 5 August 2007:

    “Trying to talk about the sensitivities of race to a gaming demographic is extremely difficult. the majority of readers are young white males who are either too immature to have a clean conversation about it or too logical to draw accurate comparisons. what is worse is that some of the hateful comments… echo the reality of ignorance and hate they claim black people should get over.”

    White, young, female gamer here. It’s not getting over racism that’s being chanted over and over again, it’s is (mostly) the following:

    1) It’s a trailer, not the game. It’s extremely difficult to judge whether a game will ultimately be racist based on a small portion of it.

    2) The game takes place in Africa (one assumes, although it could be Haiti), so naturally the population will be black.

    3) If whites and Latin Americans can be shot, why not black people? I already know the answer to this, and it’s because they’re black (answer being a little more complicated than that, but I think it’s understood that there’s a history of nasty happenings).

    4) RE5 is not trying to resemble the AIDs epidemic in Africa because as it is known, there have been many games previous to the upcoming one that use a similar (if not identical) means to spread zombification.

    5) Like in other RE games, most likely the main dude is there to try and save as much of the population as he can. Is saving Africa a bad thing? I know the answer to this as well, and it’s not, but it’s objectionable for Africa needing to be saved from itself.

    Out of pure curiosity, how would anyone feel if it was either the Irish or Native Americans being zombies instead?
48. 

    Comment by The Central Scrutinizer on 5 August 2007:

    Uhh, you truncated my post above, not sure what happened… my FULL comment for the record, includes reference to the statement above, then:

    We all know that LOGIC has NO place within the confines of a discussion over racial disharmony.

    AND…

    9 out of 10 talking heads [including Ann Coulter & Bill O'Rielly] know that broad sweeping generalizations actually facilitate politically charged discourse!
49. 

    Comment by Sir Cedric on 5 August 2007:

    “Featuring eyes that shine with a hybrid of madness and lucidity, the townsfolk don’t appear to be along the lines of the rotting, shambling undead found in earlier Resident Evils. The emphasis on the next generation of the not-zombies’ mental clarity is stressed by villagers rallying around an apparent leader speaking to the masses through a megaphone.”
    http://ps3.ign.com/articles/804/804424p1.html

    “Once on the scene, Chris encounters a new form of enemy. Takeuchi described the game’s enemies as something of human form that has intelligence. However, the foes are neither zombie nor ganado (in reference to the creatures from RE4).”
    http://ps3.ign.com/articles/805/805931p1.html
50. 

    Comment by Funky J on 5 August 2007:

    Why is it only the Americans who’ve pointed this out?

    I’ve not read anything from black Parisians, nor anything South Londoners, or South Africa, or from Aboriginal Australia.

    Could it be that some people search for racism everywhere?

    I’ve never read on any of these so-called “black” or anti-racism sites when racism in games comes up (and it does frequently) people jumping to the aid of the Arabs, when in nearly every single game they’re portrayed as sinister, hairy, enemy fodder to be killed.

    There’s nothing about how whenever you hear a German voice, that character is ALWAYS a Nazi.

    There’s nothing about how every coward and or traitor in games will have a French accent.

    In my mind that’s more ignorant and hypocritical and racist than anything else I’ve read on these boards.

    You’re not about racism, you’re about you.

    You’re being selfish and arrogant trying to put your simple world view onto all others and condemning them for it.

    I would say “typically American” but then again, that’s racist.
51. 

    Comment by Asmo on 7 August 2007:

    Thanks for a more balanced assessment of the situation Fredric. I enjoy reading thoughtful posts that aren’t laden with pre or misconceptions and assumptions.

    re: Kym’s blogg, I found that she came off as an ignorant person who was “tar and feathering” something she did not understand based on what little she saw and understood about the subject…

    Disturbing that the attitude is not too dissimilar to the oppressors of generations past. Ironic, no?

    As for what is acceptable as a game, there are some limits because of the interactivity of a game (as opposed to the storytelling style of a movie or book). Portraying a rape, a racist crime (American History X comes to mind) or even pedophilia (ala many episodes of SVU) can be done in tv/movies/books because it requires no willingness of the person playing to do it, if that makes sense.

    In a game, you actually have to make your character do these things, which is why there needs to be some limits. Putting the gamer in the shoes of a rapist, for example, would be too far. Ironically, you can kill them as a hitman, but c’est la vie.

    However, this is besides the point in re: to RE5. While the imagery may be disturbing and evocative, it is not intentionally racist. Trying to paint it as racist tells me a lot more about Kym than it does about the game.
52. 

    Comment by Low Frost on 7 August 2007:

    @Hannah
    Hmm, you asked a good question. I’ll do my best to give you an answer.
    Not especially, but it depends on background and upbringing. There is an ocean of general distrust and suspicion between tthe black and white peoples in America that is exacerbated by the media and ingrained teaching. Racism is not really practiced openly, with laws, more through tradition and and process. Racism in America is tough to point out to others who do not live in it because it is not as easily seen as Jim Crow laws of the southern U.S. or aparthied in South Africa. It is the thought, the feeling, the nigh subconcious belief that affects you without even your realizing it. That if a tall, black male is walking down the same street at night as you are, you will watch him closely, prepared for some encounter that your mind has created. You may give him a wide berth, or do your best to not look him in the eye. I know. It happens to me alot. Hell, I’ve done it myself to my peers, then admonished myself afterwards for my foolishness. But it happened, the fear, a dread without source from deep within.
    That is the racism that exist in America. It exists in schools as well. A case point is that the European Renaissance was jump started by Moorish Spain, as the knowledge brought by the African Muslims trickled in to the rest of Europe and crystalized in Italy. Moorish Spain was also the place where Cristopher Columbus gained the idea of a round world, as the teachings of Islam allude to the world being spherical in shape. This is not taught in schools, that one of the greatest evolutions in European civilization had it’s start with African Muslims. That the great empires that existed in Africa, South America, and Asia are mere footnotes compared to the great amount of time spent with European history that only accounts for a portion of America’s populace. And moreso, the neighborhood you live in shapes perception. I have lived in entirely black and Hispanic neighborhoods and the perception of whites is grossly different than the more…. culturaly balanced places I have lived. Especially with elders, whom the memories of the gross injustice inflicted upon them by racist, mysoginistic laws burn strong, the distrust and almost outright contempt of Caucasion people in general is great. There is nothing to stymie it, to show that all people are different and what is true for one is not for all. Just like your view of blacks and other so-called “minorities” must be based on what you see on the news, hear in music, read in the paper, and learn from family and friends. Your question alone gives credence to that fact. I see and experience the stereotypes of black men everyday, sometimes it’s open, sometimes I need to root out the subtleties. Not just with whites, but with
    EVERYONE, black, red, and yellow. The cause to root out racism is not just about white people, it is about ourselves, about changing the image that is self destructive and negative. The entire “thug” mentality is a good example. Just as the mafioso is a misplaced stereotype of Italians, so are thugs a exemplification of the majority of things wrong with the black community. That by rooting out racism where ever we see it, we shall root it out from ourselves, our hearts and minds, to carry forward to the future with hope for all of us. That I will not be just another “nigger”, another black, but a human being first and last. That people still do not feel this way is reason enough to continue to look and root out the stain on our conciousness. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance is an analogy to this pursuit of racist ideology in todays world, because the ones who benefit from the end of ceaseless watching are those who hold the idea od racial superiority closest. Sometimes there are missteps. I believe this is one of them. That the charge of racism is not something to be carelessly thrown about, as it was here, just as a charge of rape should not be used without care and forethought. I hope I have at least clued you in to the situation as it stands with my long-winded answer.
    @ Perry: I agree with you here.
    @ Funky J: Because blacks in America have the most political and economic power of all African peoples in the world. That, yes, we do care about each other and work for the greater good of all. That simply because the voices of some are squashed or perhaps they don’t know what is going on in the wide world does not mean they will be abandoned or discarded as though they have no value. The cause of one is the cause of many, and it is more important now than ever before. You do not have to be American to give a damn about your countrymen.
53. 

    Comment by Low Frost on 7 August 2007:

    @ Funky J
    To finish, we do not take up the mantle of someone else’s defence because if you cannot fight your own battle’s, than you are doomed to fall to another. Teach a man to fish and all. The only games that feature German people in priciple are World War 2 games, between the Allies and Axis. Muslims and Arabs in general have long been fighting the “terrorist ” stereotype for years. And I have seen few games on the worldwide plate that cast cowards as Frenchman. If you want to know why the entire African community of thew world has not jumped on this bandwagon, see my above posts. You have confirmed yourself to be a troll or just another arrogant jackass, so I have taken a moment to point that out.
    @ Asmo: Thus you have cleaved to the root of my idea. The people who made this game are not racist, per se, but ignorant, simply following the mass idea of what these people are like. That i where the racist stereotype come in to play. Like a said before, Japan is exceptionally disconnected from the rest of the world, with the majority of their ideas about other people coming from the media and tales from travelers colored with their ownprejudices. A blog I frequent tell the trials of a black english teacher in Japan. It is almost unbelievably what he encounters and knowing that, makes the products you see coming from Japan more understandable. That and for a while, Kraft (or Colgate, forgot which) had a brand of toothpaste out called “Darky Toothpaste”. The mascot was a man in blackface dancing to Campton Races. Google it. My point is this massively offensive idea was entirely palatable and even popular in Japan. Just for an idea.
    @Xantar
    I understand where you are coming from. I wouldn’t want to pains of my past brought to the light for mere entertainment. However, 24 is pretty blatant with it’s stark realism. That scene was there because it actually happens, just like in Band of Brothers, they encounter a concentration camp replete with the emanciated, near death occupants. The differnce is that Resident Evil is not a window in to the ugliness of todays world, or a recounting of past events. It and its entire premise is absolute fiction that has real life elements thrown in on a whim. I still remember my friends playing RE 4 and saying “Yay, I’m killing spics!” (not around me, but you know, you hear things. Damn ears) despte the fact that the makers of the game went on record and said the game takes place in Europe. Spaniards =/= Hispanics.
54. 

    Comment by Chris on 10 August 2007:

    I won’t make any excuses for the immature responses seen on the original blog. At the same time, no one should be making excuses for Kim Platt’s own racism.

    She clearly did no research before she spat out her unfounded opinion. She automatically assumed that white america was developing this game, yet it’s being made by a japanese company. She also failed to take into the account the other 4 installments of the game, which mainly consisted of white zombies, part 4 taking place in Spain with spanish zombies.

    The N word is not at term people should be using loosely. But, loosely throwing out the word racist is just as bad.

    I can see how this game may be interpreted as racist, and I’m not denying that media can be quite racist. But I think in this case it’s a matter of if that’s what you are looking for, you will find it. To your average Resident Evil fan, this is simply a new installment in a new setting, which happens to be in Africa. It is as innocent as that.
55. 

    Comment by Pierce on 10 August 2007:

    Good points. RE:1-4 used white zombies and nobody got pissed off. The difference with these Black Zombies is simple-we live in a racist society, where there is still an unspoken, un-dealt with history called the Black Holocaust, that makes people uncomfortable with the idea of Black genocide.

    Think of it this way: if there were a way to make the Zombies look Jewish, perhaps through clothing, facial features, language and setting- .. and let’s call “Chris” - “Christof”, make him blonde haired, blue-eyed, 6′2 with a machine gun-the American Jewish Congress would throw a fit. And rightfully so.
56. 

    Comment by Chris on 10 August 2007:

    Pierce, but does that mean a game such as this is to be automatically deemed racist? The way Kim Platt was describing it was as if it was part of some huge plot by white corporate America to condition the young white generation to hate black people, as if only white teenagers play video games. Pure ignorance on her part.

    Kim can whine and sulk all she wants about how people can’t take criticism, yet she is totally oblivious to the harm her uninformed opinion can cause. You can criticize anything anyway you want, however, if you’re going make such a bold statement, especially when it comes to dropping race card, you better well have good reason to. She didn’t. She made all sorts of false assumptions and inaccurate claims. That’s irresponsible and immoral.

    And yes, we live in a racist society, but I truly hope you don’t believe that racism is only outbound from white people. Racism exists just as much in the black community just like it does in others.

    I think those who are truly neutral towars race are the ones who didn’t see any race issue when they watched this trailer. They saw it for what it was, a zombie game that takes place in Africa. The ones who look at it and think “oh there’s white America attacking black people again” are the ones who have race issues.

57. Pingback by -::- 6toe.com » Blog Archive » Resident Evil 5 is Racist - Boycott on 27 August 2007:

    [...] Fredrick from YBP says The images used in the game, already disturbing because it is resident evil, also reflect hateful images that were real and meant to invoke hate towards black people in the not too distant history of america. in addition, the underlying stigma of a white guy going through an african village that is infected by a disease spread through blood contact while shooting his way to victory has the undertones, as well, of insensitivity to images projected in the past. [...]
58. 

    Comment by Tom Smith on 20 September 2007:

    The Resident Evil series has never had any racism in it before, and I doubt that the makers had intended for the new game to be any different. They just wanted a new location to freshen up the series and (being Japanese) didn’t really consider what they were doing.

    As a fan of Resident Evil, I ask you to please not base your views of the entire fanbase based on the negative comments left by people in the blogs. I can assure you Resident Evil is not a racist game, and neither are most of the people who play it.
59. 

    Comment by Idetrorce on 15 December 2007:

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce
60. 

    Comment by RESIDENT EVIL 5 on 15 December 2007:

    i think its VERY! sad the way people are finding this game racist.i no its a white guy shooting black people but capcom are NOT! and i repeat NOT! trying to mke the game racist.i mean if it was a black guy shooting white people no one would care because its ONLY! a bloody game!!!
    so could everyone STOP! exadurating!!!
61. 

    Comment by I grow so tired of this on 30 December 2007:

    It’s so difficult for me to find the words to describe the levels of frustration and confusion that i experience upon reading some of these posts. The racism in Resident Evil 5 i believe is one of the most foolish controversies I’ve come across in a good while. There is no issue of race in this game. The color of the people, I’m sorry, zombies in the game serves only to make the setting more believable. The game has always talked of moving the setting to Europe and therefor it is a logical progression to possibly move to an African based country. to call a game racist just because it happens to depict black people being killed is madness. there have been no issues of race ever raised before about any of the previous games, despite Hispanics being killed in RE 4. To put the word racism in this game seems to imply that you think anything against black people is automatically racist and that there is no other possible explanation. i understand that yes, African people are being killed by a white man in this game. however if you cannot see past the fact that it is merely a game and that before now its always been the killing of whites in the franchise, then you yourself are blind to see nothing but racism in the world. and by racism, from the way it seems to be put by you, is only a big deal when it occurs to Africans. It’s a game. nothing more. there are no hidden agenda’s unless you create them.
    Also, i am incredibly outraged myself at this utter ignorance that you yourself are using to imply that the gaming community is nothing more than a bunch of racist white children who are just praying to kill the world. this statement idea in itself is so insane to me that i was quite taken aback when i saw it. Please, Black looks, or whoever else wants to take on me as a gaming representative, respond. I have no intention of attacking you. I simply wish to try and better understand your point and to maybe try and help you better understand mine.
62. 

    Comment by music on 7 January 2008:

    very interesting.
    i’m adding in RSS Reader

63. Pingback by Resident Evil 5: Discussing racism | Download Free Games, Free Download Games, Download Shareware Games on 17 January 2008:

    [...] to the medium’s more popular forums will no doubt have witnessed it before. Another blog, the Young Black Professional’s Guide saw the reaction as no great surprise. “Trying to talk about the sensitivities of race to a [...]
64. 

    Comment by Kathryn on 19 February 2008:

    Well, I go looking for a fun list of ‘things i learned from resident evil’, because I’m bored, and I find another debate about the supposed racism in the upcoming Resident Evil 5 game.

    I’m not going to read all of the comments, I’m just going to point out something about your blog that bothered me, and then head back to Google:

    The picture under your fist paragraph is possibly the most misleading thing I have seen recently. Undoubtedly, anyone who wants to see racism will take that image out of context and see a whole mess of it. Why? Glad I get to explain. I’m going to go through this as if I have not seen the trailer, and just make some observations.

    The focus of the image is a man of dark skin tones, who looks to be afraid of something. Behind him, one can see a shadow that could be his shadow, or could be the shadow of someone else.

    Let’s take the ‘Resident Evil 5 is racist’ route first. The game’s main protagonist is an American male, of light-toned skin. By the image, one could go so far as to assume that this dark-skinned made being shown was looking up at the white man in fear, and the shadow belonged to the white man, who was about to kill him (probably in some spectacularly bloody way, since gamers seem to enjoy that).

    Oh, but wait, there’s no CONTEXT in that one! Let’s look at the trailer leading up to this image.

    Okay, we see a village with dark-skinned persons… hmm, they seem to be rather normal, just living life as they do… and there’s a white man walking through the village, alright…

    Blah blah blah, oh, hey, tense moment! This white man (Chris Redfield) opens a door, and the camera zooms in on two dark-skinned men seeming to be attacking a third. Yep, that’s really racist, isn’t it?

    Oh, but here’s what I was looking for! As Chris watches, something seems to happen to this dark-skinned man that had been attacked by two of his fellow villagers. He gives the camera a look of fear, and his eyes start bleeding.

    So then this bleeding-from-the-eyes fellow attacks Chris Redfield.

    Scene cut, a group of villagers attacking Chris, and him defending himself. Several times over.

    Is the game graphic and violent? Yes. Does the game feature a light-skinned male shooting dark-skinned people (male and female)? Yes. Is the game racist? Most likely, no.

    I also read the original blog that got this started (by that Kym Platt person), and found her ignorance to be astounding, but other people have already addressed that. My advice would be that if it doesn’t appeal to your tastes to defend yourself from zombies–who happen to be dark skinned–don’t buy the game. And, if you fear that even having images of it out there will somehow harm you, lock yourself in a padded room with no outside communication except a nice nurse who brings you meals, but never speaks to you.

    Or, more realistically, learn to live with it.

    Then again, what do I know? I’m just a twenty-something American female, light-skinned (except this great tan I’m working on), who enjoys playing video games sometimes.

65. Pingback by Blacks in Games, On Games | Young Black Professional Guide on 16 April 2008:

    [...] the opinion of a Newsweek gaming journalist on the Resident Evil 5 trailer, something we touched on awhile back. His reaction was similar to the one I had: Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game. It’s [...]
66. 

    Comment by taffysaur on 28 April 2008:

    “is no one getting hurt by making a game about a asian kid who can only liberate his soul by shooting up a college campus and getting a body count above 30?”

    By your logic, the only people who should be offended by this game are zombies.
    I also find it offensive that you stereotype the entire “video game demographic”. I really do, I’m not just making a point.
67. 

    Comment by Joe on 10 July 2008:

    I being a Zombie find all Resident Evil games racist

    Oh and “Braaaaaaaains”
68. 

    Comment by Bonny on 21 July 2008:

    IN FORBIDDEN SIREN YOU HAVE TO KILL ASIANS AND RESIDENT EVIL IS RACISM? Sorry but you guys are very very stupid morons!!!!!!!
    By the way, there is a black Zombie in an other RE game, but no one cared about, why in RE 5? Thats idiotic!
69. 

    Comment by SynchPedro86 on 24 July 2008:

    For goodness sake, it is only a game. Up until now, Resident Evil games have always been violent. There was a black guy in Resident Evil 2 who you had to kill. No one cried racist then. This is just immensely stupid.
70. 

    Comment by meeting rooms on 21 October 2008:

    I think its very! sad the way people are finding this game racist.i no its a white guy shooting black people but capcom are not! and i repeat not! trying to mke the game racist.i mean if it was a black guy shooting white people no one would care because its only! a bloody game!!!
    so could everyone stop! exadurating!!

71. Pingback by meeting rooms « All home related issues from gardening,moving homes,our environment:: just about anything to help. on 14 November 2008:

    [...] posted as a comment by meeting rooms on YBPGuide using [...]
72. 

    Comment by information on bulimia on 30 January 2009:

    nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now
    keep it up
73. 

    Comment by Funky Baby Clothes on 31 January 2009:

    Good post. Have bookmarked your blog and will surely come back.

74. Pingback by RE5 Isn’t Racist. It’s Just Ignorant. | Young Black Professional Guide on 12 February 2009:

    [...] those new to the issue, here is what I wrote earlier about the game: The point is that although games are controversial, artistic, and fun, there has to [...]
75. 

    Comment by Devin Shirley on 12 February 2009:

    your blog is great 624 gratz!
76. 

    Comment by Lmao! on 22 February 2009:

    stop making everything about race! it's a GAME! get over it omg. did you see hispanic people getting pissed off bc the enemies in re4 were hispanic? the fact that black people are even complaining about this just supports the stereotype and comfirms that there are many of them who really do make everything about race! stop whining and GET A LIFE - IT'S A GAME!!! thanks! ( :

77. Pingback by “Expert” Consulted on RE5 Racism Issue: Not an Expert on Race After All at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 16 March 2009:

    [...] Yet, the initial critics of the racist imagery in Resident Evil 5 were completely dismissed and often attacked with racist slurs by many gamers because the criticisms came from [...]