WSJ explores claims of racism in Resident Evil 5
by Ben Gilbert 
{ Mar 11th 2009 at 2:45PM }
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!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Great Golem+ @ Mar 11th 2009 2:50PM
I agree, this game is clearly zombist!
sohcahtoa @ Mar 11th 2009 2:52PM
is zombist is because they are leaving out all the zombies in RE these days :(
Cody @ Mar 11th 2009 3:01PM
I don't know about any racism, but damn if this game doesn't need a healthy dose of RE4 Wii Edition controls!!
Next generation Sony and Microsoft are in big trouble!
Dirty @ Mar 11th 2009 2:51PM
Im going to write a piece exploring how the hit show 24 helped elect our first black president.
Markez @ Mar 11th 2009 2:59PM
Lemme know when you publish it in the Dirty Journal, you have your first reader.
...oh right. RACIST.
Charlie_Six @ Mar 11th 2009 4:15PM
Half-black, half-white President!
Dirty @ Mar 11th 2009 4:40PM
Does it help you sleep better at night, knowing that our president is at least half white?
Charlie_Six @ Mar 11th 2009 4:49PM
Your prejudice is a mistake. I voted for Obama and was extremely happy to see him win. But the guy is half-black and half-white. Why is stating this fact an implication of racism?
WRE @ Mar 11th 2009 5:19PM
I hear you, Dirty. At first I was like, "Wait, he's all black?" And then somebody said, "Naw, he's half-white." And then I was like, "Phew! That was close."
Tiptup300 @ Mar 11th 2009 11:28PM
Honestly, does it matter what color he is? He's x times better then bush and skin color really doesn't affect anything.
The only real reason is to know which jokes to make about racial stereotypes.
FSK405K @ Mar 12th 2009 9:48AM
You mean The West Wing, right?
Kyle @ Mar 11th 2009 2:52PM
I'd quite like to read this.
HippoHero @ Mar 11th 2009 2:52PM
Whoa. Deja vu.
Michelobius @ Mar 11th 2009 2:53PM
Good article. Nice balance.
Erluti @ Mar 11th 2009 3:40PM
Yeah, that's because he is acting like a reporter and not a journalist. His goal was to report information, not tell us what to think about what's going on.
How refreshing. If people who talked about things more important than video games would report the news instead of providing commentary the world would be a better place.
Ben Gilbert @ Mar 11th 2009 3:49PM
@erluti: "Yeah, that's because he is acting like a reporter and not a journalist. His goal was to report information, not tell us what to think about what's going on."
A journalist is a reporter. At no point is a journalist different from a reporter based on fact reporting.
Journalist: 1. a person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism.
Reporter:
2. a person who keeps a journal, diary, or other record of daily events.
Reporter: 1. a person who reports.
2. a person employed to gather and report news, as for a newspaper, wire service, or television station.
Reporters practice journalism and Journalists practice reporting. Just to be clear.
Cosmo @ Mar 11th 2009 2:54PM
Why can't people shut up about this, WHY!!??!!??!!??!!??!!??
Michelobius @ Mar 11th 2009 2:59PM
Because it's relevant, complex, and I believe the people who deny any racism of any kind make it worse by proving that racism is not dead even though we elected a black president. It doesn't just go away.
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:17PM
“We elected a black president we aren’t racist anymore rite?”
You know the elections exist because people are supposed to choose the best man or women for the job; what if McCain would’ve won everyone would be more racist then?
That’s idiotic and using that to prove you aren’t racist is racist. Some guy told me that, is some sort of paradox.
Anyhow they added multi-ethnic zombies; they completely destroyed all immersion in order to avoid this issue. You are not in Africa anymore seriously the demo looked more like Fallout 3 than Africa?
Also is not like Chris Roid-field came out of no where, it supposed to be there to tell the fans “hey guys is not like we totally forgot about you,here we have this guy that doesn’t look anything like Chris Redfield but has the same name and we have characters from the first games so is cool huh? Even when we are leaving you in order to reach the Hardcore American public that would totally buy Gears of War 3 or Halo over our game anyday”
Michelobius @ Mar 11th 2009 3:26PM
No no. You misunderstand. What I'm saying is that there are too many people who think racism is dead because we elected a black president. It's not. Everyone's a little bit racist. Including me. It's part of human nature to fear or revile what is different, as least on a subconscious level. Recognizing it's there is the necessary first step to solving any problems. That's all I'm saying.
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:47PM
Oh I see yeah I also have the occasional racist thought every now and then next to the one that tells me I should set things on fire or that I should kill people but they go away eventually it helps I have friends in different places and are from different cultural backgrounds (no seriously I do somehow I'm very Charismatic) and I don't want to be a complete asshole.
Maybe is part of the human nature feel you are better than someone else for not good reason other than your hate for every men still breathing.
Charlie_Six @ Mar 11th 2009 4:16PM
Michelobius,
Half-white, half-black President. Why is Obama's white half ignored by so many?
Cosmo @ Mar 11th 2009 6:23PM
Right Charlie_Six, he is 50% white and 50% black but everyone just ignores his white side, I think even Obama mostly does this as well.
Anticrawl @ Mar 11th 2009 8:08PM
Actually Obama was only marketed to be black because of it being a dominant characteristic. He is 50% white, 37.5% arab, and 12.5% black.
His mother was white and father 1/4th black and 3/4 arabic.
If you are going to cite percentages atleast don't forget his Arabic origins. He's a white man legally.
Charlie_Six @ Mar 12th 2009 1:51AM
Anticrawl, where did you read about Obama's dad being mostly Arab? Nothing on Wikipedia confirms this, and Googling for such data merely reveals blogs that do not present any hard data, such as this one: http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/08/update-on-barak-obamas-and-everybody.html
The site is also run by a very right-wing guy, which further clouds the issue.
sneakymonkey @ Mar 11th 2009 2:58PM
..so is Sheva a self-loathing racist? A player can go through the entire game AS an African character, but that just conveniently gets pushed to the side. News and anti-racism corporations alike will make planets out of mole hills to get some unwarranted attention, and it's all completely ridiculous. If any of the people making these "racist" claims would actually PLAY the damn game instead of looking at a screenshot of a beefed up white dude blowing the heads off of Africans holding axes, they would have a much different opinion on the issue.
Michelobius @ Mar 11th 2009 3:01PM
She's light skinned with straight hair and a British accent... and you can't even play as her unless you're the second player. That doesn't need to be pushed aside, and is actually more damning than helpful. I've played the demo, and I'm sorry, but it's racist.
WRE @ Mar 11th 2009 5:23PM
It's not racist, she's a sidekick. She's Luigi to Redfield's Mario. Claiming racism on those grounds is like saying that Nintendo is Younger-thinner-taller-brotherist. Come on.
TheWatchmen09 @ Mar 11th 2009 5:48PM
@ michaelbious
NO it's not racist. As a black man I feel that there's nothing wrong with the game.
The only problem is idiots like you who scream racism at every little thing that has a black person in it.
Yet you turn around and say you want black people to be treated the same as white folks. Well guess what? White people and Latino people got shot at in the earlier Resident Evil games. No one was screaming racism then.
And now this game comes along. And it's set in AFRICA. As in who lives in Africa? Mostly black people.
neoverkill @ Mar 28th 2009 4:37PM
I agree with you 110 % sneakymonkey. What about Josh, the black A.I. controlled charachter who is shooting black zombies? I guess thats just "self defence". What about the fact that Wesker..Excella..Etc are white protagonist that Chris Redfield is also shooting at..no they dont mention none of this stuff. It's always one sided projected racism on their part. Im sure someone saw just one screen shot of the game and came to the conclusion from just that. There is always two sides to every story..READ THE FACTS FIRST PEOPLE!!!!
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:02PM
Welcome to last year and even back then it was an stupid discussion.
Capcom placed multi ethnic zombies int he game FFS shut up already.
(Again killing zombies in 3rd worls crackhouse = / = Africa but everything to shut up these bigots)
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:04PM
"an stupid" I was going to type "an idiotic" I choose stupid instead.
Yeah I know this always happens when I'm transmitting RAGE.
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:05PM
Welcome to last year and even back then it was a stupid discussion.
Capcom placed multi-ethnic zombies in the game FFS shut up already.
(Again killing zombies in 3rd world crack house = / = Africa but everything to shut up these bigots)
*proof read edition.
Markez @ Mar 11th 2009 3:09PM
*you fail edition
Just kidding, we still love you, ESC. What's FFS? Truly, multi-ethnic zombies are something the world can embrace and unify around.
Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Mar 11th 2009 3:14PM
FOR FUCK'S SAKE!
Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Mar 11th 2009 3:19PM
Actually I do fail at edit.
Boy I could use an Edit button JOYSTIQ *Does the Guile stand.
j.howlett @ Mar 11th 2009 3:05PM
i don't think anybody with any cred said the game was racist, but the trailers were questionable early on
Charlie_Six @ Mar 11th 2009 4:36PM
I've followed these stories for quite a bit of time, and they're quite odd. The only person who claimed the game was racist was a black lady who ran a political blog. She reacted to the first teaser trailer of the game. This was like 2 years ago. Since then, I haven't seen anyone actually state that the game is racist. And yet there are literally tens of thousands of posts across the Internet saying that "lots of people think the game is racist, that is so dumb." But who are these "lots of people"? Where are they? It seems like if they exist, they're outnumbered by a thousand people who disagree. And if it really is a 1000:1 ratio, what exactly is the controversy?
In recent weeks, there has been Tom Chick of Fidgit, Tycho of Penny Arcade, and that Eurogamer writer that have said RE5's imagery is controversial, but none have outright claimed racism. In fact, the only person who has recently claimed the game may be racist was that anthropologist that Joystiq featured in a recent story. He said that the game was racist towards white people.
I feel like if you take a step back and analyze things, it becomes clear that many people are using this "story" as an excuse to express their frustration with other political issues. Most whites are strongly opposed to affirmative action policies here in the US, and that, amongst other culture war issues, is fueling this "story" to a sad and absurd extent.
Jay @ Mar 11th 2009 3:10PM
If i see RE5 and racism in the same line one more time..
Longhorn4Life (PSN MariusElijah) @ Mar 11th 2009 3:22PM
RE5 is full of racism
Jason @ Mar 11th 2009 3:12PM
Nice to see the Wall Street Journal of all things approach this discussion from the ground up. I've noticed they do some decent objective video game reporting, and they deserve some praise for that. Maybe people will shut up after they read this from a paper with credibility.
Though, in all honesty we could just do away with the nay-sayers and have Capcom make a game about World War Z....god that was such a great book.
butaneko @ Mar 11th 2009 3:22PM
Chris never reflects on his position as a white male in Africa? God is a spoiler alert too much to ask for?!
Anam @ Mar 11th 2009 4:45PM
Is it really a spoiler to tell you something doesn't happen?
butaneko @ Mar 11th 2009 4:53PM
I need to go in fresh damnit!
Longhorn4Life (PSN MariusElijah) @ Mar 11th 2009 3:23PM
Thank God im colorblind...
Michelobius @ Mar 11th 2009 3:44PM
Just like Steven Colbert.
t3kni9e @ Mar 11th 2009 3:27PM
Ya know at first I thought this game was far from racist in anyway until I read someone's comment over at Kotaku that opened my eyes.As a Puerto Rican with a father that swears everyone is racist I get tired of hearing people complain about racism. Now im not some idiot who thinks it doesn't exist, oh it damn sure does. But I just don't like senseless accusing. But then I realize there really is racism in this game.
But the thing is the game isn't a direct form of racism. Chris Redfield isn't saying "FUCK YOU DARKIES!" The thing that makes this game have a racist element is the fact that now the story is saying that this is the "origin of the virus". This further adds to the idea that somehow africa and africans in general seem to be the center of disease of some sort.
It's like they thought "We need a setting where the virus would originate, somewhere that a disease originating would sound believable" This is where the hint of racism comes in... People are so programmed that people will say Africa and people think it makes sense as if Africa MUST be the origin of a virus. No one is truly at fault in my opinion, it's the way people are being programmed by history, school, mass media and people in general. The same could be said about War games set in Modern times where certain countries seem to always be the "enemy" while America seems to always be the "good guys". Take for example CoD4 and Splinter Cell. We'll see what happens with CoD:MW2... It would be nice to see America have some kind of appointed dictator as a result of the recent recession slipping into the 2nd great depression and America becomes the enemies. That would be damn different right? But no... America are the Heroes while Russia and the Middle East are the enemies right...?
B3astofthe3ast @ Mar 11th 2009 3:39PM
Yep, lets forget that RE4, the games predecessor had spaniards as the enemies, who were also infected with the virus.
t3kni9e @ Mar 11th 2009 4:03PM
That's only adding fuel to the fire... Spaniards, another minority in this world, not only were they Spanish but it was in a rural part of Spain which would fight the stereotype of a virus springing up in a poor place full of minorities. Because a virus being spread in a big city (like in the original RE games) would be preposterous right? Like I said anyway... it's really no ones fault and highly probable that it's something that the developers never thought about.
I'm not saying i'm in anyway mad about it, Hell I don't care... But I do understand now why some people would say it's racist.
WRE @ Mar 11th 2009 5:29PM
"Spaniards, another minority in this world"
Uh, wouldn't the Chinese be the only non-minority? I mean, if you're talking about the whole world and all. At almost 400 million out of 7 billion or so, Americans are in no way a global majority...