Why are Resident Evil 5 racist complaints being reignited?
Resident Evil as we know is the most popular survival horror franchise ever created. A series like this has been able to outdo others from the same genre such as silent hill and alone in the dark just to name a few. In keeping with the latest trends and trying to please gamers, the people at Capcom tried to add fresh material in the game which unfortunately, for ridiculous reasons got a lot of heat for claims such as racism in the game. Though this issue has been out from since before the game’s release, there are still reports of people viewing the game as racist. Such claims are ludicrous in my opinion and will be further studied in order to nullify these reports and put an end to this once and for all.
Resident Evil 5 which is the 7th installment in the long running franchise has taken a different approach in scenery when compared to previous games. Gamers though reunited with fan favorite Chris Redfield will soon notice the new location called Kijuju, which is a fictional village located in Africa. We can all agree that majority of Africans are dark skin, which basically is what Capcom indicated in their game in keeping with the right culture of the continent. So my question is why are people calling the game racist? We can all see that Capcom did their part in ensuring that the right people were represented as per continent. Some people claim that the protagonist who is a white man is relentlessly shooting black people in a village. Well of course that’s the case, since Chris Redfield was a white man from the first RE game and the location is in Africa, where you most likely will see a lot of dark skin people inhabiting.
I am sure that if Capcom was to use the same setting but this time replace the people in the village with Caucasians then these same critics will complain that Capcom is racist by giving a false representation of the people that are supposed to inhabit Africa. Yet if they give the right representation they are still racist. Basically a no win situation for Capcom. Now I am not calling Capcom a saint but I will not stand for unfair classification regardless of the nature of the individual(s).
Also RE4 which took place in Spain had the player which was Leon S. Kennedy who is another Caucasian kill the inhabitants of the village which were Spaniards. Yet we did not hear any claims of racism there; now did we? That is because people realize that this is a game and only a game that tries to give a real representation of a country. Also the virus which is a main element behind the game’s plot affects everyone regardless of race, forcing the player to kill the person for survival. Basically what I am trying to say is that regardless of race, once you are infected you will be killed.
Finally, enemies in previous Resident Evil titles have been predominantly white people, yet no one complain that this was racist. So why do people have to complain because black people are being shot in a game that have also shot enemies of other races such as Caucasian and Spanish?
In my opinion this is a case of a false accusation towards a game that has nothing to do with any form of racism. So I say to these critics, please stop the ridiculous accusations and find something better to do with your obviously, ridiculously free time. Why not get a job or do something more educational with your time. I will admit that racism is still prevalent but not in the video game industry. And I speak for other gamers when I say this, and that is leave the video games out of your racial classifications because we are not interested.