WSJ explores claims of racism in Resident Evil 5
by Ben Gilbert 
on Mar 11th 2009 2:45PM
The
Wall Street Journal's Jamin Brophy-Warren has a piece today exploring the racial connotations some are seeing in Capcom's latest effort,
Resident Evil 5. The game's producer
Jun Takeuchi recently said, "There is no racial element to it at all," and Capcom's Chris Kramer expands on that point, stating to the WSJ that the game adopts an "anti-colonialist" stance. Mr. Kramer is referring to white protagonist Chris Redfield, shooting his way through
RE5's African non-zombies, and the imagery it represents with regards to traditional Western colonialism on the continent.
The theme of the piece is one of exploring whether or not the game is racist, rather than starting with a condemnation and then going forward like we've seen
so many times in
mainstream video game coverage. He speaks to a variety of major game developers (from
Fallout 3's Todd Howard to
Dead Space's Glen Schofield) and even broaches the topic of racism in American society being perpetuated by a largely caucasian game industry. Surprisingly, no sweeping claims are made and no aspersions cast. Bravo, we say!
