racism resident evil 5

I have found that gamers and non gamers tend to have different opinions on games. Let’s take Resident Evil 5 for example. This game has been criticized heavily for its racial stereotypes. The game is set in Africa, where you either play as a white male protagonist or a black female protagonist. The objective of the game is to stop prevent the zombie virus from spreading as it has already taken over most of Africa. With this said it is fair to stay that most of the Zombies will be black as its setting is in Africa. Kym Platt, a writer for Black Looks, a blog dedicated to exploring issues dedicated to African women, expressed how she felt about the game

“This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.”

I can understand where Kym is coming from but the last thing I though about when playing this game was hatred towards African people. It just so happened to be set in Africa ,perhaps the creators of the game could not choose a more sensitive setting of the game but I was more concerned about killing zombies whether they were black ,white or yellow I think that most people who have played the game would agree that Kym’s response is an over reaction, perhaps her not having any experience beyond watching the trailer , it is hard to make such claims, although it may be unfair for me as a ‘white male’ to say that Platt’s comments were not justified.

Just a thought :-)

Brendon.S