Resident Evil called 'racist video game series'

September 24th, 2007, 19:58 Posted By: Shrygue

via Joystiq


An author on left-leaning AlterNet.org not only jumps on the controversy of Resident Evil 5's alleged racism, but calls it a "racist video game series." The article is such a mess that you really have to enjoy it for its absurdity. The piece starts by saying those who go to see the "blockbuster Resident Evil: Extinction" in the theaters may want to play the game, but those who do "will likely enter a world little-known beyond the expensive and expansive universe of gaming, a world increasingly populated with very dangerous depictions of nonwhites."

The author only covers RE4 and RE5 in declaring the series racist. For RE4 he says its Spaniards have "stereotypical Mexican accents" and that RE5 "could be a training video for a white supremacist race war or another U.S. military adventure in one of the increasing numbers of deserts on the planet." Beyond the Resident Evil series there is a rehash of the Haitian controversy from GTA: Vice City -- although the author is way off in his timeline calling GTA: VC "this year's most popular video game."

There's a lot more "racist" issues brought up, but the article really stands as great piece to highlight how even when you introduce diversity to gaming, it's not just the extreme exclusionists who get upset and don't understand why there are women, gays, non-whites in games, but the extreme inclusionists too. Although in the inclusionist's case they want a rosy picture painted of the non-majority group; however, that's boring for narrative, unrealistic and in the end racism really depends on context. There are more moderate views on race issues in video games and that really shouldn't be forgotten. The AlterNet article is just so weird in its "one step forward, two steps back" presentation, we can't help but share.

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