Capcom USA will be proactive in preventing another 'RE5 controversy'

@Misanthropic Gamer

Exactly. It's Africa, the majority of the people there WILL BE BLACK.

And even though I thought the tribe people were a bit too much, there are tribes there.

@Misanthropic Gamer

You seem to forget RE4 where all the enemies were Hispanic. There were no objections then, I just think the whole subject of racism is a bit too touchy at times.

@Arsenic13

Agreed.

@Misanthropic Gamer

Funny how black guys can call white guys "crackers" or whatever they say now, but if a white guy says something the least offensive, it's automatically inappropriate and appalling. I mean this is common knowledge in this day and age, but people do realize how idiotic this is, right?

And of course I'll get downvoted for my comments about this subject matter.

Ridiculous.

I'm a Black African (from Zimbabwe) and I couldn't care less.
I haven't played RE5 yet though, there are tribes people lol?

I'll get round to it sooner or later.

@Misanthropic Gamer

Blackcareer dot com.. a website just for black people to find jobs.. not racist

if we had a whitecareer dot com.. it would be racist.

NAACP: not racist....

if we had a National Association for the Advancement of White People, it would be racist.

black history month... not racist...

if we had a white history month... wait.. thats the other 11

last sentence: racist.

@Misanthropic Gamer Are you guys kidding me? Do you not understand RECENT US history? I agree that sometimes there can be overreaction. But come on not the whole "Why isn't there a White Entertainment Television" argument. EVERY OTHER CHANNEL is White Entertainment Television. Well, except for Telemundo, but whatever...

@Misanthropic Gamer Ugh I guess the difference here is that one group in america literally OWNED the other for 400 years. Thats why they can call you a cracker and you can't say the N-word. poor thing.

@Misanthropic Gamer I can't believe we are having this conversation again. Once again, defenders of RE5 continue to change the conversation to a straw man argument that a game can't have dark-skinned enemies. That was *not* the complaint about RE5.

I will say it again, to make it clear. THE PROBLEM WITH RE5 WAS NOT THE FACT THAT YOUR ENEMIES WERE DARK SKINNED.

This whole conversation started when N'Gai Croal, discussing the trailer said it was "dovetailed with classic racist imagery." He didn't say the "game is racist" or that "Capcom is racist or promoting a racist agenda." He made a fairly sophisticated argument that has been echoed by many, including myself. Spend a few minutes looking and read dozens of articles about how the game's design uses negative, race-based imagery for cheap scares and why that is not ok.

But let's be honest: You don't care. You'd much prefer to change the argument to be about something much easier to disagree with. "Is Capcom *racist* against black people and seeking their subjugation through a video game?" and "Is a game racist just for having black enemy characters?"

Then, having completely ignored the actual discussion, you can declare yourself the winner and pat yourself on the back. Congratulations.

@Shadowbender Wait so if Im Hispanic I can say what ever i want AWESOME!!!!

@Shadowbender
Just to spite you im going to upvote you

@Petebot330 - What if I get permission from Al Sharpton? Would it be racist then?

@Misanthropic Gamer

Brown/black are just too touchy.

You tell em they cant borrow something, your racist.

you hate them cause there a dick, your racist.

YOu ignore them cause there rude to you, your racist.

yet they can do all that, and even threaten you, and its just a dandy day.

@Shadowbender Actually, within modern academic discourse, it is literally impossible for a person of color (the preferred nomenclature for non-white folks) to be racist, as racism is defined as originating from the dominant racial power. So basically, the whole "racism = racially based prejudice" definition is dead in that department.

But boy oh boy, is it fun to have arguments with people who insist that this new definition is the only one in existence.

@HedonisticKai

Goodness.

NAACP is a civil rights organization for minorities. The founder was a white man.

If you had an National Association for the Advancement of White People, it would definitely come off as racist seeing as white people don't have a history of suffering from civil rights abuses. White people are already at the top of the food chain in the US, so where are they going to advance to? Who's deprived them of jobs, pro pretty and opportunity? Nobody. That's who.

Same thing about black history month. 11 months of the year are white history month in the US. Sorry, when you're top dog, enjoy being top dog and quit complaining that the lower dogs get some table scraps while you're eating prime cut day in and day out.

Anyhow, back on subject, I don't know a SINGLE black person that thought RE5 was racist or even mildly offensive. The only people that thought it was racist were progressives (mostly white) that thought the game was insensitive. Most of the black gamers I know bought the game on day one while people that weren't black were arguing about whether the game was racist or not. The only thing I found offensive about the game was the fact that the control scheme sucked horribly in comparison to modern horror titles like Deadspace.

Now, can we DROP the subject of race? Life would be a lot better if people ON BOTH SIDES of the debate would learn something about how other cultures actually work, instead of being in their own shallow little "ME" world.

@Liquidmark

I mean property, stupid auto correct on this thing changed it to pro pretty.

@eudaimo One thing that I find interesting is that virtually NO black people were offended by this game, and there was no outcry over other games that had you shooting mostly black enemies.

RE5 came out. Black people didn't care. Progressives complained. blacks get blamed for being sensitive and having a chip on their shoulders.

Far Cry 2 comes out. Has mostly black enemies with 99.99999% of the characters in the game being either scumbags or lowly villagers in hiding. Black people didn't say anything about it.

The only people complaining about racism in either game are progressives that aren't in tune with how black people feel about the subject and people that wear their own racist beliefs on their sleeve and jumps on stories like this to spread their own bigoted beliefs and fan the flames of hatred that stem from hundreds of years of human suffering.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2
White Hispanic is different from South American Hispanic. They all speak some form of Spanish, but they are not the same culturally.

I don't think Capcom's intentions with RE5 were ever to be racist, but they really screwed up the theme in that they never really did anything with the African setting IMO.

@Misanthropic Gamer

WOW!
I mean just WOW!

Anyone that ever thought that there was no such thing as sensitive, ill-informed little gamers --- clearly they've never met Misanthropic Gamer. Well, waitaminnit--he is misanthropic--or to be politically correct "IT" is misanthropic.

I'm assuming you were the 1st to post? Is that it? What is that like to go onto a site everyday reading about manly politically correct games like Gear of whatever or creaming in your pants over the next screenshot of a Bioware title but absolutely getting so worked up over a post that you absolutely had to be the 1st to post your little whiny rant?

It's either stupidity with you people or just downright evil to be this ignorant on a message board about a post that was pretty straightforward and had very little to do with your feelings of inadequacy at not being black.

What's fascinating with the racists on this comment thread is that one has to wonder how a videogame that legitmately offended some people (otherwise why was it a controversy) that it absolutely must have the whiny rants of a bunch of easily offended kids considering that they all seem to post how this A. Wasn't racist (i.e. not to them) and B. Was okay when it was white on white violence (i.e. I didn't notice it when it was white zombies so why should they notice it when it was black zombies).

Let's deal with some facts kids (although let's face it..many of you are so offended right now at a black person calling you whiny, racist and stupid that you've started your own post or more than likely headed over to Foxnews.com to find others who agree with you about the "evils of the black man"--boooooooooooooo):

1. This is NOT THE 1ST TIME CAPCOM HAS BEEN CALLED RACIST.

What's amazing is how little you videogame nerds who I assume comb this site everyday, several times a day actually know about YOUR CULTURE (i.e. u r either a poser who loves to feel like a real man by shooting enemies or you actually know and love this industry and it's history--judging by the ignorance of the PRO-RE5 comments---u're most ignorant posers).

Capcom has been heavily criticized for its' use of Japanese stereotypes of African Americans in games ranging from Streetfighter (little known fact losers--did you know who and why Dee Jay was created waaaaay back in the 90's??? It wasn't because Capcom received complaints that they were too easy on minorities). Likewise, Megaman has a wonderful little character who is so racist that his voice and art had to slightly changed for Megaman Powered Up (and here's a shock --- it wasn't 20 yrs ago..that was just a few years ago).

2. CAPCOM IS A BUSINESS AND A PUBLICLY TRADED ONE

While I know most of the intelligent aritsans on this site normally read the financial news of their favorite company's (yea right!!) instead of sneak peeks at the latest Bio-Dead Space Call of Medal game----you all may not have known that Capcom is a global company that has not been very successful financially in last few qtrs. Now--I know..success to you all was "I played the game and it WAS BAD ASS" but to the rest of us hardworking minorities (HA--get it lol) we actually have to make money and provide for the economy instead of play games athough so therefore we know a little something about profit and loss. Clearly Capcom was least worried about the RACIST JOYSTIQ and other Gamesites KIDS than they were about paying customers who live in US, FRANCE, BRAZIL and so on and are --waitammint--some of em--hell alot of them are minorities!!!! It's crazy but perhaps Capcom USA who made this statement was saying to you and them--we value all of our customers and want to make sure they are not being mistreated to which case why should that bother YOU o' racists wannabee gamers?

3. WHY EXACTLY DOES THIS BOTHER YOU???

What I find stunning is that Capcom loves white people. I mean, I've been playing their games for over 20 years (crazy but see--I'm actually older than you all) and for the life of me I've NEVER EVER EVER SEEN A STARRING CHARACTER WHO WAS ANYTHING BUT WHITE/ ASIAN. Yeah--I had to throw the white/ asian in there b/c see for the last 25 years Capcom cared A LOT about misanthropic gamer and many of the fools on this comment thread. Funny you all think that blacks are getting all huffy cuz of the ridiculous ugly imagery they had in the game for us but have you THANKED CAPCOM for all of the years that they MADE YOU ALL THE STAR? See in America--we don't confuse Asian and white but in Japan they knew to sell in America they'd better kiss your ass if they wanted the game to sell.

See how that works?

They portray you all as heroic and villains but u're the star (hell Wesker is in how many RE games and he's the damn bad guy!) but black folks were relegated to ignorant sidekicks, useless NPC's that got killed (1st RE game which mysteriously had the footage lost when the game came over--which later got a director's cut that did the same thing???? many of us who have been around games know that that was actually an intervention for fear that many African Americans would be offended that the one black character would die 1st in such a grisly fashion---but you all know no history so you don't know that fact). We finally star in a game and bam--role out the racist imagery.

It's okay to be racist---the comments on this thread make it clear that many of you are. In fact with the 'controversy' that this RE5 thing had (I mean god--it was on FOXm ABC, CNN--wait-- WAIT IT WASN'T???) or actually didn't in mainstream society --- I mean where are the black people rioting or pulling tea parties outside of their local game store??? You mean they are NOT? Black people are just voicing their opinion with --- with -== with THEIR DOLLARS?

Well--now I see why Capcom wants to nip this in the bud---history of racist game devs, an insensitive and enmasculated Japanese society (not all ofcourse but from Manga to TV they've had ill caricatures of blacks while idolizing white people who wouldn't pay them the time of day in most American cities)--i mean they want to make money and satisfy all customers. So I get their response. I get the intelligent black response (cue N'Gai Croal, myself and many others).

Here is my questions though--I SEE WHY WE WERE DISAPPOINTED, WHY CAPCOM WAS FEARFUL AND THE GENESIS OF THIS POST. WHAT I DON'T SEE --- IS WHY WHITE (ALLEGEDLY ADULT, ALLEGEDLY INTELLIGENT GAMERS) ARE POSTING SUCH ANGRY VITRIOLIC RESPONSES THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM??? Why? is your racism that pent up that it must be unleashed on a message board??


WOW!

Sad!

@hiphopdontstop WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS

@Danthaman Thanks, I think? I'm assuming you actually read it?

@Shadowbender

Dr. Laura Schlessinger agrees.

@hiphopdontstop

Hey hiphopdontstop, I'm black too. And I'd like for you to sit back, put the keyboard down and shut the hell up! You seem like one of the many blacks I'm constantly NOT associating with; the ones who were raised with the idea they are at a constant disadvantage & that big ol whitey is always out to get them.

Now, if you have an IQ above 50 I'd be more inclined to debate with you. But as such, I don't "beef" (With someone whose name is "hiphopdontstop" I have to stoop down, even for a minute) with anyone with an IQ lower than mine.

But here a few FACTS for you.

1. Every Resident Evil has had zombies of ALL colors respective of the areas they've infested. The Mansion in the original & Raccoon City in the second had zombies of every skin tone. Black, white, yellow, brown, somewhere in between.

2. If Resident Evil is so damn racist; please do explain where you were during RE4 when you pretty much ethnically cleansed Spain? Or in FarCry 2 where that was about a white guy supplying black guerrillas with enough weaponry and explosives to rip a hole on the continent? I'm not entirely sure how, but I'll throw the original Uncharted for good measure cause even THAT came under fire.

3. I've already said this, but I'll say it again. Are you somehow not aware that there are blacks in Africa? And that some countries even look like they are stuck back 4000 years? And that even the most modern settings like Namibia & Nigeria still have ancient tribes hunting with bows, stones and living in huts? Oh wow, they represented that in a video game! HOW TERRIBLE!

You said, your words exactly "ridiculous ugly imagery" without realizing the hundreds of tribes and cities similar to what was being portrayed in the game! I think I'll ask Rockstar to pull GTA: San Andreas because I didn't like the "Hood Life" imagery and I think it's all completely made up. Idiot.

4. Since you love personal attacks so much, Mr. "Hiphopdontstop" I'll do one for you. Do you not realizing things like "Hip-Hop" have ruined the black image harder than any single video game could? Have you listened to the crap spewing from the latest rap single? Is it sad that I can listen to the English Bjork sings in is more understandable than most rap to appear in the last 20 years?

Haven't you seen how almost EVERY rapper has something bad to say about every other race and then instantly jumps back cause the moment something about blacks is said? But then loves taking that fat check from the same old evil white man to buy the latest bling.

Have you SEEN B.E.T.? That’s right, Black Entertainment Television, where you can get all the Blackness you want, 24/7 with all those Black folks in front of (and behind) all those cameras. It's the only channel I know that degrades black people even when it go's off air and the paid advertisements kicks in.

Maybe you could be like me and Bill Cosby. By standing up and trying to help our race by telling them to stop blaming whites and make something of themselves.

Telling the next generation of kids they are at some type of disadvantage, that they can't succeed, and that they are entitled to something that isn't theirs is what is what is largely responsible for holding blacks back nowadays.

And lastly;

Part of me questions your mental stability to purposely hunt out a comment similar to misanthropic gamers and then post a long, drawn-out diatribe about you feel somehow wronged by a different OPINION.

@hiphopdontstop
No, you are not older than everyone on the internet, let alone this website.
You do not represent all creeds and cultures, nor would they want you as a representative (I damn sure don't)
You are not schooling anyone Here on Capcom's business.

You are clearly looking for a fight, for some reason. You are in the wrong place. Especially if you want to come in here pointing fingers. Please don't think and or act like you are the first person of color to come on this website, only to come off as overly self-righteous.

And you are not the voice of reason. please step down from you soapbox, you look like an idiot. There is a saying that it is "better to be thought of as a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt"

Thank you.

@berzirk

I think people were more upset at the simple fact that later in the game Capcom used models of African that were used to make fun of them. But to be honest, I didn't see an issue with it. They still have tribes in Africa that look like they're stuck a few thousand years back, same with many other races on the planet.

I personally found it interesting they'd pick Africa of all places. Think of it, Resident Evil was all about Wesker ending the world. What better to end the world than where it began? (According to Science, etc).

@berzirk

Maybe the white supremacists were disappointed not to be featured in the game's version of africa.

That may sound silly, but it's the only possibly a bit logical explanation to this whole debacle. People seem to look for things to be offended by these days, and drop all logical reasoning to do so. A fictional africa populated by its native inhabitants? DISGRACEFULLY RACIST apparently.

@berzirk Nothing more to it. I was actually more offended/entertained/distracted by Chris. Anyone else thought his shoulders were outrageously large? They were thicker than his head.

@squallgengar Same here. I couldn't help but laugh at the reference, considering I have the song on my PSP.

@squallgengar I think Avenue Q's massive success has taken it well outside the purview of theatre geeks.

@GlockXIII

Denzel's gonna get angry.....

@GlockXIII

I blame N'gai Croal.

@Undying Ehem, AFRICAN AMERICAN Croal, you insensitive jerk!

@Undying I believe it's "N-gage Croal."

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ

That would've probably been called racist as well. Capcom just can't win.

Bet this'll be one of the last times Africa is used for a game. It was good while it lasted.

@ansalon929

Dont tell me your reading joystiq while operating

@ansalon929

Zombies *were* people too.

@Undying

Barney the Dinosaur Racism.

@Undying
To hell with purple people!

@CaptainProtonX

No. It's prejudiced. Fat people aren't their own race. Although that would be funny. ..... Heh.