by Silviera

Created on: September 18, 2008

Since the first trailer was released, Capcom has been under fire due to the scenes of the Caucasian main protagonist fighting off hordes of hostile African zombie villagers. I find it interesting that this is the first time such an issue has been brought up, especially since the 4th installment in the series consisted entirely of a Caucasian protagonist killing Spanish zombies in a similar village like setting to Resident Evil 5.

In short, there is really nothing racist about this game, or the series in general. The races of the zombies are simply reflected by the setting. Those Resident Evil games set in the United States or Europe primarily had Caucasian zombies to kill, the one set in Spain had Spanish zombies, and the one in Africa of course must now have African zombies.

Like most recent RE games, this one again pairs you with a sidekick. Specifically an African female agent who assists you in fighting off the zombie hordes. Aside from the fact that it's an appropriate ally for the setting it's clear that Capcom saw the potential for criticism and included this character to alleviate it somewhat. More than that, it shows their intentions that they do not desire their game to promote racism in any way as it demonstrates races working together to fight off a hostile zombie horde.

Subsequent trailers have recently shown that enemies are not exclusively black. There are in fact other races mixed in, just like they have been in previous games reflecting the general race diversity of the given setting. The game does not promote violence against blacks or any race in general.

In short, the accusation of racism against RE5 is simply the media flinging dirt wherever they can and stirring up people in order to create a story where none exists. Although it's certainly nothing new, it's somewhat depressing when they only bring this up in an African setting when the game has had so many others in the past with similar situations.

Resident Evil 5 is not a game about a white man murdering a city of Africans. It is a survival horror story where the protagonist fights off hordes of zombies using a small arsenal of weapons and his wits. The setting is in Africa, thus the zombies must be infected Africans, it is as simple as that. Video game developers should not feel restricted in what settings and characters they may use just because some people might incorrectly view them as racist.

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