GamePolitics has a poll up, asking if Resident Evil 5 is racist. The whole argument fascinates me, and I’m quite honestly undecided. I’m standing in the middle and I can see both sides easily, though I’ll admit I lean a bit toward understanding the side that feels the game is… well, not racist, but ignorant.
The problem with the other side is that the arguments fall a little flat for me. It’s just a game, some say. They just happen to be in Africa, others say.
Sure, it’s just a game! Birth of a Nation was just a movie, right? And all those Mammy and Bo Jangles knick-knacks are just objects? I’m not saying Resident Evil 5 compares to those. Where the comparison does match up is that it’s not just a game. Jenga is just a game, and Tetris is just a game. Resident Evil 5 has aspects of culture infused that something simpler might not. Anything that involves characters and especially humans is going to incorporate the biases of the producers of that media. Resident Evil is not depicting the chance and chaos of reality – an intentional decision was made to take the game to Africa. I respect the storyline decision, and I think it takes the gameplay in an interesting direction.
What those arguments really don’t take into account is the long history of Africans and blacks in general being depicted as sub-human or savage. In this case, you have the powerful white man with his guns and the light-skinned African woman, shooting down men one after another. Back when Resident Evil zombies were decayed humps of flesh, this wasn’t as big a deal; now that they’re parasites hiding in human skin—for all intents and purposes human—the race of the enemy is more apparent.
Another aspect of the game muddled in culture and bias is the sex of the secondary protagonist, Sheva Olimar. She’s a real mixed bag.
On the good side, she’s a strong female character who stands on equal footing with the other protagonist, Chris. She’s capable, self-sufficient, and most importantly, playable – and she’s a minority. That’s pretty cool. At the same time she’s sort of white-washed with a lighter accent and lighter skin to make her more accessible.
I think both the race and sex problems of Resident Evil 5 have strong roots in Japanese culture. Japan isn’t as experienced with civil rights as much of the world. The culture is pretty homogenous and the main exposure most people have to other races is television and movies. Of course on TV, black people are: athletes, criminals, rappers, a combination of those, or they are Barack Obama. The race problem with RE5 is not one of racism or hatred so much as it is ignorance. I don’t think there’s any negative intent with the game. It’s just that the Japanese developers are entirely immune to the things that make us so sensitive in western culture. I sort of envy that. At the same time, this game has been crafted from the beginning for a western audience, so this oversight is a bit of a surprise.
I don’t think there’s a really good answer to this. I think it highlights where Japan is at with regard to civil rights, and I think it also highlights how sensitive we can be to something that is a product of cultural ignorance rather than any kind of hate or disrespect.
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