Eurogamer‘s Dan Whitehead clearly is disturbed by what he’s seen in Resident Evil 5. In his most recent hands-on impressions with the game, he cites several ultraviolent scenes from the game which cause him to question whether or not you’re made to fear zombies or the whole of the African people in general. He describes a scene early on where you witness several uninfected Africans “brutally beating” a sack with, presumably, something alive in it. He says that this scene effectively blurs the line separating the infected enemies you’re meant to waste and the general residents who have yet to be infected.
He then describes another scene where a white woman is abducted by “black men”, and once you approach the scene to rescue her later, she’s now been infected as well and must be killed. Continuing, he references Sheva’s “light-skinned” nature and subtler accent with comparison to the infected Majini, and argues that this simply lends further ambiguity to the already-uncomfortable subject matter.
Quoting:
There will be plenty of people who refuse to see anything untoward in this material. “It wasn’t racist when the enemies were Spanish in Resident Evil 4,” goes the argument, but then the Spanish don’t have the baggage of being stereotyped as subhuman animals for the past two hundred years. It’s perfectly possible to use Africa as the setting for a powerful and troubling horror story, but when you’re applying the concept of people being turned into savage monsters onto an actual ethnic group that has long been misrepresented as savage monsters, it’s hard to see how elements of race weren’t going to be a factor.
Well, what can we say? To be perfectly honest, we haven’t seen enough of the game firsthand to draw our own conclusions on the subject, and I’m probably not the right person to do so anyway thanks to my unwritten aversion to ultraviolent videogames of nearly all varietes. But if we’re basing our arguments here on the simple fact that African-Americans were oppressed in the past, isn’t it a bit presumptuous to condemn a series that, allegedly, attempts to sidestep those prejudices in favor of an explanation centering on a deadly disease that essentially zombifies? If I’m reading this correctly, it seems to be that the primary source of discomfort here lies squarely in the fact that RE5 deals with dark-skinned zomb–er, infected people, and RE4 focused instead on the much safer Spanish culture. Maybe we should have gone with a Resident Evil 4 Part 2 instead?
Again, it’s far too early for us to judge, but color us skeptical considering the jumpy nature of political correctness in today’s world. Maybe they’ve got a point here, but we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves.
What do you think?
–Steve Schardein
Editor’s Note:
So there we have it folks. What’s next? How dare they make Mario a plumber because he’s Italian. Or how about sexism because Ms. Pacman is represented by a bow? Or how about… you get the picture. If you use the toilet of creativity enough, eventually you’ll sh*t what you’ve been looking for. There isn’t any racism in the game. It’s all subjective… and you’re even really stretching it to get there.
–Nathan Stevens