Last week, the first full-length trailer for Resident Evil 5 was released and plenty of fans eagerly gobbled up the frantic zombie action and donning the boots of Chris Redfield again. But not everyone was pleased.
On The Village Voice, the author slams the game for racial undertones and discrimination. The trailer, which shows Redfield killing plenty of zombies, is very graphic and violent but the author doesn’t address that, instead, she says, "you play as a white Redfield…And the zombies? You guessed it: they’re all black."
The author also connects the zombie infestation to the current AIDS epidemic in Africa — "Especially since one of the few sentences spoken in the Resident Evil 5 trailer is, ‘Casualties continue to mount over the long years I have struggled.’"
Well, everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion but I definitely see the irony of how this person is clearly adamant over the alleged racial undertones in Resident Evil 5 but decides to not even address the violence, which is just as big (or even bigger) of an issue today.
Resident Evil 4 took place in various Spanish-speaking villages where Leon Kennedy had to kill hordes of Spanish zombies — but that wasn’t deemed controversial for some reason in the protest.
Also the game is well over two years away — it was bumped back to 2009, and the trailer only shows a tiny snippet of the entire game. Last I heard, judging an entire game based on a tiny three minute trailer is a bad idea.
Another internet site, BlackLooks.org remarked:
"The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity. ‘I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through.’
"This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."
Eddie Inzauto, GN Staff Writer took issue with these conclusions by BlackLooks.org and said,
As the 130 other individuals who posted comments have been quick to point out, this is the first time the Resident Evil series has depicted the killing of anything other than white zombies (and mutated abominations), and nobody has ever had any problems before. Additionally, the M-rated Resident Evil 5 will in no way be marketed to children. This misinformed individual is clearly not to be taken seriously, except as an example of a racist working to fuel the hate machine:
"Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth." -blog author
Enough said.
