After the topic on representing games, it has got me thinking that video games has a similar ways in portraying different racial groups as films, movies or television series. Race has become a very popular topic in debates but it’s also very sensitive.
One thing that keeps coming back to me was watching the trailer for the Resident Evil 5 game. While I was watching the trailer, it got me thinking oh man is this a racist game or what? But, after class I had a second thought about it, maybe it is not racist at all? Although the trailer has few minutes long but as a first time person who never played any Resident Evils game before (Like me) I personally thinks it have made a big impact on the representation of black people, race are so powerful to distinguish that you cannot just looking something without realizing the message that has been sent out. In this game I personally there are messages or issues, which has been illustrated throughout the game. Also most importantly it demonstrated a different representation between the two racial group of ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’.
A basic outline for Resident Evil 5. The game consists two protagonists who are Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. The main protagonists Chris Redfield who is a former STARS member and now part of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance has dispatched to Kijuju located in Africa. The locals has been infected by the T-virus which turning them into zombies. In Resident Evil 5, majority of the zombies was represented through black males. However, if we did take a closer look, there are other ethnicities such as Arabic’s, middle-east zombies. However the representation of the ‘blacks’ has been represented in a sense of violence or rebellion. And Chris Redfield is playing a role of a ‘white savior’ where he is the main protagonist who is running around killing all the zombies and eventually saves the world.
Through the environment of the game, we could see that the city is not well constructed or developed. In this way we could argue that the city is under poverty? Also the cloth the ‘zombies’ wearing are not properly dressed some of them might not even wearing shoes. Whereas, in contrast Chris is well dressed, in a tight t-shirt and army pants with jungle boots, this shows how tough he is and he can defeat all of the zombies. There are also arguments on how black people have been seen as the un-civilized groups, where they are always the one who causing troubles and full of rage. In comparison, white people are tends to be more civilized and know how to deal with the situations properly.
Some scholar have argued that the term ‘human’ in videogames only referring to European westerner white people. The rest will label as ‘others’. The “Other” highlights the fact that that which falls into the category of the ‘other’ has historically been seen as deviant, unnatural and strange because it exists outside the boundaries of what is considered ‘Normal’.” Power relation is also important. This argument has brought me to the idea of ‘euro-centrism’. This means that Europeans or Westerners are been seen as the dominate group of the society where they are in a higher social status than the ‘others’ or more wealthier.
Same with movies and films, the representation of black people in Hollywood’s film are often been portrayed in a negative way. Such as been violent, danger, or the one who is always causing troubles. Whereas on the opposite side, the white character are been often portrayed in a positive way. Such as the white savoir, the good guy or the heroes.
Therefore, it should be understood that an historical appreciation of the problem of symbolism and meanings could cause an effect upon on how different race group is been perceived.
Media has the power to manipulate people’s thoughts on issues such as race. Therefore, as an individuals we should have a right attitudes or understanding towards the topic of race rather than ‘seeing is believing’. Once again, race is socially constructed.
One thing that keeps coming back to me was watching the trailer for the Resident Evil 5 game. While I was watching the trailer, it got me thinking oh man is this a racist game or what? But, after class I had a second thought about it, maybe it is not racist at all? Although the trailer has few minutes long but as a first time person who never played any Resident Evils game before (Like me) I personally thinks it have made a big impact on the representation of black people, race are so powerful to distinguish that you cannot just looking something without realizing the message that has been sent out. In this game I personally there are messages or issues, which has been illustrated throughout the game. Also most importantly it demonstrated a different representation between the two racial group of ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’.
A basic outline for Resident Evil 5. The game consists two protagonists who are Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. The main protagonists Chris Redfield who is a former STARS member and now part of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance has dispatched to Kijuju located in Africa. The locals has been infected by the T-virus which turning them into zombies. In Resident Evil 5, majority of the zombies was represented through black males. However, if we did take a closer look, there are other ethnicities such as Arabic’s, middle-east zombies. However the representation of the ‘blacks’ has been represented in a sense of violence or rebellion. And Chris Redfield is playing a role of a ‘white savior’ where he is the main protagonist who is running around killing all the zombies and eventually saves the world.
Through the environment of the game, we could see that the city is not well constructed or developed. In this way we could argue that the city is under poverty? Also the cloth the ‘zombies’ wearing are not properly dressed some of them might not even wearing shoes. Whereas, in contrast Chris is well dressed, in a tight t-shirt and army pants with jungle boots, this shows how tough he is and he can defeat all of the zombies. There are also arguments on how black people have been seen as the un-civilized groups, where they are always the one who causing troubles and full of rage. In comparison, white people are tends to be more civilized and know how to deal with the situations properly.
Same with movies and films, the representation of black people in Hollywood’s film are often been portrayed in a negative way. Such as been violent, danger, or the one who is always causing troubles. Whereas on the opposite side, the white character are been often portrayed in a positive way. Such as the white savoir, the good guy or the heroes.
Therefore, it should be understood that an historical appreciation of the problem of symbolism and meanings could cause an effect upon on how different race group is been perceived.
Media has the power to manipulate people’s thoughts on issues such as race. Therefore, as an individuals we should have a right attitudes or understanding towards the topic of race rather than ‘seeing is believing’. Once again, race is socially constructed.
-
Edith Yu
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.