Wait. What's the problem?

that zombies have races?

The game is set in Haiti.

As for the problem? The only problem is this game won't be out until '09. I want it NOW. RE4 is easily on of the best games ever made.

Charles, those are good points. Plus, you're shooting the walking undead, which don't exist.

I take it there was some uproar over this, somewhere?

There is no problem with the game, Charles.

from stupid people who don't have any concept of context in relation to race.

Zombie killing aside, I'm guessing Resident Evil 5 is likely to unfold in a Constant Gardener fasion. Evil, faceless Umbrella corporation developing bioweapons in secret, conducting tests on poor African villagers. The new trailer was the most exciting thing shown at E3 this year.

Wow is that an actual screenshot of gameplay? If so: amazing graphics.

@ 3
thanks, i made the corrections.

@8, hell yes. If you have access to Xbox Live Marketplace or the Playstation Online store, go download the E3 video. Stunning. Looks like Black Hawk Down, with zombies.

Haiti what now? I hadn't heard that. So maybe it'll play out more like the Serpent and the Rainbow? Either way, I can't wait.

I think I have an deep problem with any game where characters from the developed world run around shooting anyone- zombie or otherwise- in the developing world. People here do understand the relationship between the United States/Europe and Haiti right? People do realize that the reason much of Haiti is a superstitious shithole right now is because of US policies on the island? Because guess what, the game might not be racist, but it's certainly perpetuating a certain convenient idea about Haiti. It's insensitive to say the least.

Not that people with race quota score cards (white:black death ratios in video games) would necessarily understand all the implications.

#6 Bellevue Ave., what do you mean?

I'll be sticking with Forza Motorsport 2, thanks.

@3

It's scheduled to be released in early '08.

the people that are in an uproar are the stupid ones that see a black person beign shot by a white person and have no context as to why or what is going on. they see one thing and one thing alone in myopic self preservation that continues to alienate the people playing the games from their ideals.

you're killing a fucking zombie in haiti. who cares what race they are? sure they could have made them all white buy wouldnt they be in The DR then?

I don't think Haiti needs to be stereotyped like that period. It's typical American insensitivity that sees the world as a series exotic locales to play in. Haitian stereotypes were worthless when Live and Let Die came out in the 1970s and they're worthless now.

i'm sorry, what stereotypes does this game perpetuate? that all hatians are zombies? that's a new one to me.

political correctness never sounds more ridiculous than when deploying it during a discussion of a video game.

@ 17

The difference between the video game Resident Evil 5 and the James Bond movie Live and Let Die is that Resident Evil 5 is a work of fiction. The problem is not the way places are presented in fictional works, the problem is that people think that fictional works are real.

Hogwarts Castle doesn't look anything like it does in the movie, either.

Haiti isn't being stereotyped. HAITI ACTUALLY SUCKS! I wouldnt be surprised if Haitians actually believe in zombies in the same number americans believe in god.

@16

This is all very typical. It's okay for a black wo/man to crack jokes at a white person, throw racial slurs at a white person, shoot a white person (in a game, movie, or in a song), and make fun-filled-fun PG-13 moronic movies involving any (or all) of the above.

The only time racism is brought to the table is when these actions are reversed. Take the dialogue from any PG-13 'black' movie, um, let's say Underclassman , or any R 'black' movie, um, let's say Hustle & Flow , and swap the skin colors as well as the terms and jokes directed towards ethnicity. Yeah. Wouldn't that be fun? Imagine the sparks that would fly!

Point is, you're a racist if you do not stop and think about skin color before doing anything, saying anything, etc.

I, on the other hand, believe that is racist. I mean really, do black people stop and think about skin color 24/7?

OMG! There are two white children in this ad! Where is the black child?!
There are two black children in this ad. Everybody is chill.

OMG! There's a white guy shooting black people! Even though they're zombies!
There's a black guy shooting black people. Doesn't matter if they're zombies. Everybody is chill.

OMG! There's a white guy complaining that he's around tons of black people! RACIST!!!
There's a black guy complaining that he's around tons of white people. That's funny! Everybody is chill.

Etc, etc, etc.

Sigh.

@15 - unfortunately they (developers) announced last week that it has been pushed out to some time in '09. :(

Bellevue Avenue's mild xenophobic comment aside, I think that resident evil is based in Haiti because of the belief in Zombies in some sub cultures of vodoo which has a strong base in slums like Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince.

Word is Duvalliers' murderous Tonton Macoutes were once considered zombies by the people they opressed.

This belief in zombies not all of Haiti, so the problem with charles' argument is that while yes whites have been shot at in video games, there has never been a game that shoots at a whole country's population. So for instance, a game has not been developed where they shoot at Japanese nagasaki atomic bomb survivors turned zombies Or poor whites from rural west virginia who beleive in the cures found in poisinous snakes. I will bet my left arm that white america would be up in arms if that happened.

The problem with this version of resident evil is the way the country is being targeted and it gives license to ill informed people to make assumptions of a whole culture simply because theyre economically up shit creek.

@22

Oh God. You're right. Those motherfuckers.

i don't just want to disagree with charles. but in his last post, i couldn't see the racism and hoped he (or someone) could explain it. in this post, i can actually see it. if not with what jay wrote about perpetuating stereotypes, in some of the defenses for it. in all, i would say there is some underlying racism that this game may very benefit from. i would not, however, define the game itself as racist, or label the producers or distributors are racist without further proof to indicate so.

*There's a black guy shooting white people. Doesn't matter if they're zombies. Everybody is chill.

Tossing around racism like this dilutes the caring of racism by the people least impacted by it: whites.

I don't think the game is racist and should be banned or anything, I just think it's in poor taste. Haitians have enough problems without being represented as a nation of zombie and believers in voodoo, though many of them do believe in voodoun practices. I agree that Duvalier helped perpetuate these idiotic myths in order to perpetuate his power, but is it really wise to take up Papa Doc's torch? It's one of those ideas I think should just be buried on some level. Voodoo zombies from Haiti: played out.

Let's propose a hypothetical situation that might be more relevant to the Stranger. Someone makes a game that takes place in the Castro in SF, with the rainbow flags and everything, and some kind of Super AIDS turns the residents into zombies- now, officially they're not gay, they're gay zombies. And besides, gays have never been killed in a mainstream video game before (unless you project shit into San Andreas), and why should they be spared? Heterosexuals die all the time. Now, would this be considered offensive and would it be banned?

It's typical American insensitivity that sees the world as a series exotic locales to play in.

Dude, have you ever spent a significant amount of time in Europe? Believe me, anyone, regardless of their nationality, who has the money to travel thinks of the world as a series of exotic locales to play in. The Brits take it a step further: they see the world as a series of exotic locales where they can buy vacation homes for super-cheap because of the exchange rate and use the locals as domestics. They're doing that to half of Spain right now. They have dozens of popular TV shows about how to refurbish your new Spanish villa. It's disgusting.

I know self-hating is all the rage among a certain class of pseudo-intellectual American right now but I highly recommend a few months in, say, Blackpool before you settle on that too firmly.

I'm now eagerly awaiting the responses telling me that somehow, through some miracle, this is not a valid analogy.

Judah:

Read my posts. I mentioned Europe. I only focused on the United States because that's where we live.

BTW Judah: It's kind or presumptuous to claim I'm not aware of European racism or cultural assumptions about superiority when you and I argued at length about anti-Muslim xenophobia in Europe.

1. gay zombies? really? did you just make a hypothetical with gay zombies?

1a. how do you know that the zombies are gay? are all people in the castro are gay? or do you add in silly mannerisms like limp wrists and groaning lisps?

2. It wouldnt be offensive. Theyre fucking zombies. they cease to be humans. they are trying to kill you. If they happen to be gay, well thats too bad, but it certainly would be more interesting fighting a horde of homozombos in the castro than it would be fighting zombies in an underground base on mars.

and how could you seriously get offended by such a ridiculous thing? it takes an active mind, looking to turn something into a political point to find something horrible in that hypothetical.

3.

I'm also NOT a pseudo-intellectual, but you're free to make assumptions.

Why should homos be spared the zombie treatment? As long as they arent lampooning gays in hurtful ways like saying "see, gays cant be parents because they are going ot turn into zombies" then there is no problem.

Bellevue:

Yeah man, I'm really sure that the Stranger would fully endorse such a game that straight kids play where they kill undead AIDS carrying gays. BTW: the analogy was supposed to be tinged with humor.

The stranger isnt the final arbiter of right and wrong, nor good taste or bad.

I didn't say the Stranger was the arbiter of taste. I said, in effect, that many of the same people who think killing zombies in fantasy Haiti is ok would be appalled by a game where gay undead are shot at in SF. If you want to live in a fantasy world where a game like that would ever see the light of day, go right on ahead.

My point is that sensitivity only matters to people/gamers when their own feelings are being trounced.

They need to make the fat zombies look like ken hutcherson and let you club him in the nuts with a haitian spiked voodoo stick. also....there needs to be a michael vick zombie and an oj simpson.

thats right; people only care when THEIR group is being marginalized. Thats why outrage over being marginalized is phony and worthless: it's all about being selfish and defensive, not about solving the causes for your troubles.

the problem here isnt haiti, or blacks being zombies. the problem is in trying to explain why this makes people uncomfortable. where is the harm in these production decisions? what are people afraid of?

Jay: believe it or not, I don't really pay attention to arguments on the Slog that far out.

As to the rest of it: whatever. People from all developed nations (especially the Asian ones) are prone to treating non-developed places as exotic and buying into the tourist industry in those "exotic" places that bills them as playgrounds. Fact of life, happens across wildly divergent cultures, seems to be pretty much human nature. You want to lament it? Knock yourself out.

40: spoken like a true clueless conservative. In your world, entertainment is apparently the best we can do as a people and a society. Forget resolving problems, the real issue is why are people offended at video games? Once we solve this pressing problem, the world will be a better place. Meanwhile people in the United States will continue to completely misunderstand Haiti and characterize it as a place where cartoon zombies live, because that's as far as our cultural consciousness goes.

I'll leave you with the first amendment of the Constitution: The people of the United States reserve the right to entertained and never questioned about their tastes, which are held to be immutable.

Judah: I'm completely aware of that, but I still believe in the idea of making the world better, expecting more from people than base prejudices. When I look for friends, I look for people who can also see above the "way things are" and take the opportunities to unburden themselves of their preconceptions about other cultures. So while it's true that the world continues to turn and humanity continues to be entertained with their biased and stupid notions of other people, I will gladly tell them that it's stupid, like this video game, and they can continue consuming junk food entertainment until their unremarkable end.

I'm in the middle of playing through RE on the Wii and I can't believe there isn't more outrage about the stereotyping of the poor Eastern European villagers infected with the (as yet unrevealed to me) scary injection mind control stuff. How could they act like everyone from poor Eastern European countries wants to chop me to pieces with an axe or blow fire in my face, or have their head explode and crazy tentacles replace it? This world is just so uncaring and incorrect...

You people seem to be confused about what the game Resident Evil is about (in all carnations).

It's about zombies. Zombies EVERYWHERE. In various locations throughout the world, because of a fucked up American company doing fucked up things with drugs and shit.

I'd like to expand on this last thought (because it's about as relevant as what y'all are screaming in here):

It's not as if this time they said, "Last time we had white people shooting Care Bears, let's have white people shooting black Haitians!"

Every single game has been about zombies and weird monsters. It's not as if they're saying that Haitians are fucked up people.

It just so happens that in this game, the Haitians in whatever area of Haiti this is were unfortunate enough to be infected, likely, with some kind of mutated virus that can't be controlled.

I'd shoot them too (and God I hope I will sometime if I can get an XBox360)!

Sam: That is true.

More than anything, it's likely the games Japanese creators target is reckless corporate America.

48:

That does seem to be the trajectory of the series.

Entertainment isn't a panacea for social problems or exacerbating them. which is why it's pointless to blame video games, or hold them accountable for the social problems we have.

i think the bigger problem isnt this question at all. this is all just a symptom of a far larger problem. why are people fighting percieved racism in video games with zombies rather than fighting real racism in the world of education, work, government, etc etc.

is it because the most harmful forms of racism are also the most subtle, i.e. not video games?

Keep in mind I never said it was racist; I was only trying to explain why it might be offensive to certain groups. That said, I agree that video games are the least pressing issue on that front.

I'm just critical, even about things I like. And I happen to think that stereotypical imagery reinforces misconceptions and prejudices- it doesn't create them, but keeps them alive in the social consciousness. Is "Birth of a Nation," beyond being an important movie in film history, somehow removed from the context in which it was made, is it a neutral or unimportant statement on race? Is "Triumph of the Will" just neutral art that had no bearing on Nazi policies? I would argue that art and video games very much do affect the way people think about the world. They have to be held to the same accountability as public figures. They shouldn't be banned, but they shouldn't be uncritically consumed either.

My view is the game is fine, whatever its aims. But I think Haitians would have cause to be concerned about how they're represented in it. Who knows, maybe they come off highly favorable in it.

"why are people fighting percieved racism in video games with zombies rather than fighting real racism in the world of education, work, government, etc etc."

Because without excessive kvetching on perceived racism, we'd only have actual racism to complain about. We'd be talking about actual victims. If we were to do that, racism would be as common as discussion-worthy as murder. Almost everybody would be on the same page: it's wrong, it's bad, it happened.

Every political preference, every religion, every sexuality, every culture, every 'ethnicity' (isn't it fucking retarded that ethnicity has basically become a group?) has, in one way or another, bigoted beliefs. Being a bigot is basically having your own opinion now.

In a perfect world, one without bigotry, we wouldn't be discussing this. Not because it's a perfect world, but because all of America would drop dead if it didn't have something to complain about.

What the hell is wrong with shooting zombies that want to eat your brain? Do you want to be a zombie, Charles? Do you relish the idea of saying, "Brains," over and over again instead of, "Marx?"

I'd be interested to hear what Charles had to say about Borat . After doing a search, I haven't been able to find anything. If there isn't anything, why not? I'd be pressed to bitch at Charles for not complaining about racism regarding Cohen's portrayal of Kazakhstan's people.

Real racism is an ideology. Racism is a set of beliefs that uphold structural inequalities etc. By its very definition, racism is largely a cultural project, and the way racist views are upheld or spread is through education (either by the parents or the state) and cultural production. The racism you're talking about is people "acting on racism" or cases of exploitation, which are called structural racism. But racism as an ideology is a series of ideas and concepts, spread by the written word, cultural representations, etc. And where are these to be found if not parents, movies, video games, or books? Why does racism exist? Because people are taught to be racist by their parents, peers, and the culture at large. Systems of power and control are upheld through cultural assumptions. A slave owner in the Antebellum South benefits from slavery as a system- that's structural racism. He believes blacks are inferior because everything in the culture- society, art, upbringing- has taught him through a series of stereotypes that they are. That's racism.

People are a little too defensive of popular culture and don't hold it to the same standards they hold individuals.

Borate is a hoot. It reinforces preexisting prejudices (particularly those of liberals), but it's hilarious. Much in the same way that game is probably going to be fun.

I have a great idea. The best compromise ever. They'll set it in Haiti... but all the locals will be white? and the heros will be black.

get it?

Get a fucking grip people. We'll have a South Park flag while we are at it.

@ 23 ... You tried real real hard to think of those examples didn't you. They are extreme, and well ... I think similar themes have been done in Anime, lost souls if you will.

Jay, one of the problems that I am having though is what is defined as racist though.

Denying that something is racist is seen as a racist act in itself. This is probably the part that bothers me about race relations.

If you are to say that the Michael Vick coverage isn't racist, that makes you racist de facto, in the eyes of people claiming racism. Which is a load of bullshit and turns people off from the cause of equality.

If you think affirmative action is racist, that makes you racist de facto in the eyes of people who support affirmitive action. It doesnt matter what the context of the affirmative action is, or the details: the fact you dont support it means you are a racist in one way (you want to deny equal opportunity), or a racist in another(you want to promote people simply based on race).

The problem with both these hypthothetical is that blanket calls of racism (which no one wants to be for the most part) circumvents any actual discussion of the merits of them.

its begging the question: "how long have you been a racist?" you may or may not be racist but this question presumes that you are from the beginning because of your opinions on certain events or hypotheticals.

In fact I think the charge of racism at this point in our history is very counter productive because it almost always turns into a debate about non sequitars of the current situation that spurred it.

Really, to me the question is, do minorities benefit from allegations of racism in matters of media presentation?

are black people using their collective political power best by chasing down media representation issues rather than instutional racism (like equal pay, promotion passovers, police relations)?
does equality come from changing minds in person or changing minds in media. does equality stem from debasing stereotypes present in the media, or from ones seen in real life.

You guys are way off. The reason it's set in Haiti is 'cause Haiti really DOES have zombies. To set it anywhere else would be like shooting mummies in Italy instead of Egypt, or hunting vampires on the Upper West Side instead of in a foggy European countryside with superstitious locals. And it doesn't even imply that all Haitians are zombies, only that the great majority of them are, which I think is uncontroversial.

Bellevue, I like that last paragraph. People like to play this shit out in the media and don't deal face to face, which is the way that always matters most.

What?

Affirmative action is racist.

but thats teh problem poe. to even have dialogue or opposing opinions is to send yourself to racist-town USA.

Can someone please show these racists the way to soundpolitics.com?

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