However, killing white zombies for the past 10 years or so was never a problem

Aug 2, 2007 08:48 GMT  ·  By

When Capcom launched the newest Resident Evil 5 trailer, sites immediately started stirring up some controversy, basically in relation to the fact that players will be in the boots of the White guy, on a mission to kill the Black, zombie guys. It seems that "the first ignorant article has popped up in the form of a blog post at BlackLooks, a blog that focuses on 'anything to do with African Women...'" as Evil Avatar reports. Blogger Kym Platt wrote the following, according to the reporting site:

"The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man's job is to destroy them and save humanity. 'I have a job to do and I'm gonna see it through.' This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages..." What?! Hold on there. Everyone's an inhuman, blood-sucking, disease-infested bastard/bitch in Capcom's survival-horror game. Except for the main characters, of course. "...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," the piece reads on.

Of course, the blogger either wants to see racism in RE5, or hasn't played (or even seen) the game series, or any games for that matter. Games have various settings - Africa in this case. Almost every game has different stages with different settings. More than that, previous Resident Evil games featured only white zombies walking around waiting to get their limbs and heads shot off.

And since the matter here is young kids getting the wrong idea, who says RE 5 is for youngsters? As long as the ESRB, BBFC or PEGI rating boards rate it properly, I don't see any problem. What, killing a bunch of black zombies is bad, whilst blowing off the heads of white undeads is alright? I'd say that's against whites now, but hey, you didn't hear anyone bitching about it since 1996, when the first RE was released, now did you?

Really now, is the gaming industry so boring that we have to pick on these topics? Black zombies, white zombies, what's the difference? They're all zombies, eager to bite your leg as they crawl up to you, with their rotten bodies. Would you let black zombies live if they wanted to eat you alive...?