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RE5 producer speaks out against allegations of racism

Posted Oct 27, 2008 at 5:37PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3, Xbox 360 Tags: Capcom, Masachika Kawata

A white protagonist in a military get-up mows down a horde of savage black zombies. "Racism!" cried the Internets.

We've been hearing this complaint tossed back and forth in internet forums and blogs since 2007 when they showcased the Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360) trailer at E3.

Capcom's RE5 producer, Masachika Kawata, spoke out against this point of view during an interview with CVG. He claimed that they were simply following the game's storyline and had no ulterior agenda besides. "We're in the entertainment business, we're not here to state our political opinion or anything like that. It's unfortunate that some people felt that way."

Followers of the Resident Evil series would likely agree since this fifth installment in the popular survival horror franchise is supposed to directly follow the events of Code Veronica (GameCube, PS2, Xbox). It was discovered in the course of that game that the Progenitor virus came from Africa, so off to Africa they went. "We're extending the storyline logically," explained Kawata.

It does make sense, doesn't it? When the T virus broke out in Raccoon City, we got to gun down American zombies. When the setting changed to a Spanish village, we shot at Spanish zombies (yes, I know they weren't *really* zombies exactly, but you get the idea). Moving on to Africa, it only seems logical for there to be African zombies in abundance.

The other side of this argument claims that the logical consistency of the storyline is largely irrelevant since it still depicts black people as savage inhuman killing machines and forces the player to fight and kill them. For a game marketed to children and young adults, this may potentially instill fear and hatred toward black people during their formative years.

I don't really agree with this but I felt the other side of the debate needed representation. I'll leave you to form your own opinions.

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Killing Black people is not racist. People who believe is racism is racist. I'm sure many people heard this before but Japanese people made this game so how can it be rac.....wait a minute never mind. My point is that many people hates on Blacks and Browns even before this game and it wont make a difference. And I'd like to see the next guy that talks s**** or act a fool in front of me because they are influenced by this game.

# marketed to children? — TRA 2008-10-27 20:22

excuse me, but since when is this game marketed to young children? if a child gets to play that game, obviously the parents did something wrong. and about that racism-claim: i asked a friend of mine who's black and he said he feels people who make a big fuss about it are being racist - just makeing this game without any implied thought is not! maybe its different, because we live in europe and you're still having troubles electing a black president over there - but hey, one day you'll finaly overcome that hopefully...

# OMG FG — PT-X 2008-10-27 20:27

Why are people in this day so...freaking annoying...I mean WTF man.....Racist...............geez.. if that the the thing they thinking.....they should ban the whole ***** like movies...tv series games or whatever...dang...

And I agreed with TRA and PAPAJAG !

# I dont see the racisim, — ShadeyProphet 2008-10-27 21:54

you could set a black man in an U.S setting and have him kill white people all day long and it's not considered racist..

it's been done time and time again...

so why is this any different?

# not being racist is about all races being equal!!! — ShadeyProphet 2008-10-27 21:59

I see it as "equality" to have all races treated the same,

we've did white people in resident evil and spainsh people.

what make black people more deserving of specail treatment over white and spanish?

i'm just being straight up fair and honest about the issues, like i always have been.

# Some black people — cizzar 2008-10-27 22:06

play the racism card too often which ironically makes some white people to hate blacks

# God save the animals... — Shatterdome 2008-10-27 23:11

speaking of races, what about species ? It really hurts me deeply to think of all the crows and zombie dogs that were killed throughout the RE series......WHAT ABOUT ANIMAL RIGHTS?:!?!?!!!

# psychology. — ShadeyProphet 2008-10-27 23:40

I don't mean to sound like an *****,

and i'm not pointing fingers. But the truth of this issue is.

it's psychologically self explanatory.

To a non racist person, there is no difference in race.

But see this is where the psychology comes into play. '"when race becomes an issue of great importance" weather it be a topic of discussion or a preference in ones associates.

it's an important clue that, "race is an important topic for them'

while to non racist people, their minds aren't even thinking along the lines of race, their not even thinking about racism at all..

I know that is some twisted thinking, but thanks for following my point.

hmm,

So you see, it's the racially "sensitive people" who really have the "real problem" because to non racist people. racism usually isn't the first topic that comes to mind....

# i hate this topic for 2 reasons — Rei64 2008-10-28 01:21

1: Because its tired and old, we talked abut it already and we know the guys behind the game are not up to anything racist.

2: because when we talk about this topic some of my fellow gamers say some really really ignorant or purposely hateful things and its not the producers of this game but those members of the gaming community we should worry about.

i can see how some people can think this game is racist. we know better because we play the game but if your mom and dad or your grandma and grand pa walked by and say you playing it they would think its just a bunch of black savages running around because they seem more human than "Zombie". but is that the truth? no its a friggin game and even if it was a game with black savages , only a racist person would apply that vision to black people . we know the facts already so stop commenting on it and i hope that we can stop talking about this and it never comes up again.

I see both point of views and im tired of hearing both. let this topic rest.

# RE4 — GAWDIE 2008-10-28 03:21

Don't remember anybody playing the racism card when RE4 came out. Blasting all those Spaniards in the face with shotguns and whatnot.

Double standards my friends.

# there will always be hate in the world — sickofitall 2008-10-28 03:25

this is just another excuse for it.

# I thought this issue was settled a long time ago — sickofitall 2008-10-28 03:27

I don't understand the need to keep bringing this up as well. I don't hear anybody making a fuss about this game any longer, so why talk about it?

# Crappy Crappy Crap — SolidXnake 2008-10-28 04:09

And...Here we go again with the same thing. I saw the video last week and I knew the question would be up and cycling again. By the way did you see that white guy in the teaser? Ah I guess nobody saw that, didn't you? you racist people?(if anyone in the forum is in fact racist, which I don't think anyone is here) - Just let it be and let's enjoy the game for what it is - A GAME.

# OMG — Koru-Kun 2008-10-28 05:16

I've been protesting the racism that's been present in all these damned Resident Evil games!!! These developers sit there and make us brain-dead zombies look like a bunch of stoned out wasteoids that only care about killing the handsome/sexy *main* characters... WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU DO IF YOU SAW SOME DUDE PACKING ROCKET LAUNCHERS AND SNIPER RIFLES?! I know as an upstanding infectious sorta-decomposing person that I would chase after and try to kill that person too! SELF-DEFENSE PEOPLE!!!!

These developers portray us like we're just cows to the slaughter, come one come all take your best shot at these stumbling drooling zombies. I thought you're supposed to TREAT the sick, not euthanize them... whatever happened to "we're all equally humans"?

Forget racism against the black skins, we leper-like zombies get MUCH more flack against those ungrateful racists then they do.

/truth

# Well in America... — phiyuku 2008-10-28 07:50

If you don't have insurance you don't get treatment +(

Even if you did have insurance I don't think greedy insurance company will pay for treatment to cure a zombie

# I think this is stupid... — jackstraw419 2008-10-28 08:11

...Obviously they are in a part of Africa that is mostly populated by blacks. Big fuggin deal. Now if you were a nazi or skinhead or some dude in a white robe and hat hanging black people we could call that racist, or if you only would sell the game to arab people that would be racist. the game is rated M. If they wanted to be racist they could be. If you don't like it don't buy it. Plain and fuggin simple.

# ShadeyProphet logic is twisted and cool — shabghai360 2008-10-28 08:16

I have to agree with his sentiments. Its like the pot calling the kettle black.

People who don't give a care about color creed etc have no issues and therefore are not racist. However those that jump to arms in the defense of anothers color or creed actually create a racist situation. Actually the craziness goes further as the best jewish jokes are told by jews and no way can a white boy make fun at black people the way richard pryor or eddie murhpy can. jeez, I am surprised that no one speaks up for them aliens we blast in Halo as we are so racist by indiscriminatel y blasting aliens from outer space just cause they're different.

In all seriousness its a sad situation when a game falls prey to some idiotic notion. For the R.E. franchise it only seems logical to come to Africa. We have in the story creatures called Zombies, and Zombies if I remeber were the result of Voodoo cults with their origins in deepest Africa or at least thats how the oldest of zombie films would have us believe. If it were Vampires we would be in Transylvania so for me blasting dark colored zombies in Africa makes sense and if I am to be regarded as a racist then its not my problem but that of the accuser.

# "It's unfortunate that some people felt that way" — xxjunior01xx 2008-10-28 08:29

Seriously!! Is a ***** game for gods sake! Damn these stupid americans/whomever make such big deal about racism. Dont they NOT know how not to give a damn??!

What's even more stupid & funny is the storyline takes place in Africa. WTF? Did they not learn about geography or social studies in their schools? Hello! Africa is fill with blacks, so obviously it makes sense if the zombies are black. These people have no ***** common sense, Im lmao! lol.. Bet you there's gonna be one dumbass thats gonna call me racist because of my statement. Plainly, go ahead I could careless. But seriously is just a ***** game. lol :)

# ... — Ninjiz 2008-10-28 09:50

hate to burst your bubble... but theres no such race as spaniards.. ppl from SPAIN are just as caucasian as any italian, irish, german or any otehr white person from europe. so that argument makes little sense.

# That´s nothing racist about this — jhpeter 2008-10-28 11:08

And the free soeech is in danger with the world full of paranoids, hear them is more danger yet.

# steriotype — PS3 OUTSIDER 2008-10-28 12:31

how raceist is this game when i went to africa there wasnt a single black person everyone was white so this game is quite unrealistic cause it would obviously be raceist to be realistic which is what this game is being realistic. you cant win with the human rights extremeists on the net it would be raceist if it didnt have a black person in so quit contradicting yourselfs.

# .... — DJ PON-3 2008-10-28 13:36

I hope we don't get idiots at school calling black people zombies

-__-

# haha — MARTINSTATIC 2008-10-29 02:15

What the hell?

You think that because of the tourist resort YOU went to in Africa had no black people, the rest of AFRICA HAS NO BLACK PEOPLE?!

Why do you keep making misinformed posts?

PS. Game not racist. Over the last decade, how many white people in Japan have been saying that ''Biohazard is racist, turning people againsts whites?!"

# okay .. — nikko03 2008-10-29 05:21

This makes so much sense, expecially when you play something like gta san andreas and 90% of the people you kill in that are black...but no one complained about that..its so ridiculous how people try to turn EVERYTHING into an offence towards themselves. and so i guess that means i should hate every game that has killed a white person because i am white..

# well then... — stressfactor381 2008-10-29 07:21

You know the only people that bring the issue of rascism up are the black people because all they want is attention and they want it there way and thats its and all of us know this and it is damn true......

# they are in africa. — jmak0 2008-11-11 01:57

in africa theres lots of african people with dark skin get over it. pointing out the fact that you are going around killing black zombies opposed to the usual white zombies is racial discrimination - i.e. you are not treating all races with equal judgement. If they had a mixture of races of zombies in africa it would not be realistic, and would probably be positive discrimination. The policeman could have been made to be black african, but that would have also been positive discrimination, and wouldn't have been consistent with the story. Think about it.

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