Capcom Comments on Resident Evil Racism

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Alex_P

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Mar 27, 2008
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Ronny1871 said:
Now, the true gripe is (according to my personal opinion), will they execute the characterization of Africans (i don't know the exact country just yet) as badly as they did with the Spanish farming community?
We have a winner.

-- Alex
 
Mar 26, 2008
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Bring back the days of Double Dragon where you beat on black guys, white guys, green guys and women and no one even batted an eyelid. Why? Because it's a game and most people know the difference between that and reality. Am I beating on the women in the game because they are women; no, it's because they are trying to kill me. However, if it was a game filled with only female or black antagonists then I'd be very worried.
I wonder how modern day Germans feel these days when they play any of the plethora of WWII games? Sure in real life they are far, far removed from their forebearers, but in the digital world they are still getting stereotyped and snuffed in epic proportions.
 

RottnCOD

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Jul 24, 2008
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Even Capcoms reply is racist, they should have referred to thier development team as "African American" not black.
 

ccesarano

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Oct 3, 2007
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This is only a problem in America, because people became too damn afraid of being prejudiced that now just about anything can be claimed as racist. No other country has ebonics. No other country has a special culture for people that are just black. But America? Oh yeah. Black people are SPECIAL. They have this deep culture, and ebonics is part of it! Etc. etc.

They smallest thing can be labeled as racist, and the reason why Capcom is surprised is because people are completely retarded in America when it comes to whitey + blackey.
 

tendo82

Uncanny Valley Cave Dweller
Nov 30, 2007
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Capcom's reply is akin to the I'm not racist I have a black friend argument, when we all know full well said speaker is equating simply knowing a black person with friendship.

Japan just doesn't understand the race issue in the same way that Americans can't understand why Koreans are an underclass in Japan. History is important, and when creating games for an international market it's important to keep these historical contexts in mind.

I was willing to throw the Japanese a bone for cartoons imported over here with "sambo" depictions in them(DBZ) because I knew it was a naive ignorance and only intended for domestic consumption. But Resident Evil 5 is a major international release with an enormous American audience, many of whom will be sensitive to some of the images in the game.

I'm not pointing this out because I think Capcom should be forced to change the game. If this is their vision, then they should move forward without any impediment. However I think a lot of this controversy is being generated out of profound cultural ignorance on their behalf, and I don't think it's controversy Capcom is interested in courting, so we need to be vocal in letting them know what they are getting into.
 

odisious15

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Nov 14, 2007
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These sort of stories and whatnot for the lack of a better word piss me off to right on down to the bone. Anyone who thinks that this is racist is IGNORANT and needs to take a course in biology and world history.

First off saying that killing a black person in a game is racist means that killing a Caucasian, Asian, Latino, or any other race be it HUMAN or OTHER should be labeled as racist in a game so long as the protagonist is of a different origin than the victim.

Secondly generalizing all "whites" into one category is absurd when it comes to slavery, or any past injustices. For example I am Caucasian, BUT I'd rather be called a "Mutt" than white because I did not just spawn from one long line of a pure genetic chain as every one involved in these arguments seem to think; And by that I mean that my ethnic background is very diverse many of my ancestors are German but not all, as I have many Greek, Italian & French ancestors.

I'm rambling of course and I hope at least some of what I am trying to convey comes through in my post. I honestly just do not understand how or why people even have this sort of mindset anymore. Honestly I feel this whole "issue" of racism will never go away even when we have all become one shade of gray; someones always going to be there to bring up something one's ancestors may have perpetrated centuries ago.

.../end incoherent rant.
 

slaygore

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Mar 6, 2008
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RottnCOD said:
Even Capcoms reply is racist, they should have referred to thier development team as "African American" not black.
You do know that Africa is not the only country with black people and that they don't just live in america or africa, especially coming from Capcom, a japanese company that does their work in Japan. Using the term African American would be a wrong use to distinguish their race.
 

Ryuuken

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Jul 24, 2008
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First of all, to quote someone a few posts above me. I fail to see the racism here.

Second of all, it's ok to sit by and watch a black protagonist character mow down white people (GTA San Andreas), but yet when the tables are turned, everyone cries foul.
 

wgreer25

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Jun 9, 2008
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HobbesMkii said:
I think it's kinda feeble if your defense is "Hey! Black people worked on the game!" That's like going "I'm not racist; I have a black friend!" (subtext: "...who I trot out in order to prove I'm not racist").

I agree w/ Xiado's PS though. I don't think you guys watch enough FOX news. They're more concerned with liberal bashing than agreeing with political correctness. For instance, I could see them denouncing the use of a female helper protagonist as another instance of feminism stuffed down our throats.
You bring up the one good thing about fox news, liberal bashing. Every other media outlet is so uber left wing, it is nice to see one that occasionally calls them on thier uber hippie bull shit. Having said that, Fox new is just as pants on head retarded as all the other media outlets, just in the other direction.

As for this game being racists, yes people are going to raise a stink about it. No the developers did not make a game to breed racism. Yes the fuck-tards that screem this game is raccist are the asshats who are breeding more racism by calling everything racist. I would call out Jessie Jackson, the idiot who is so disconnected from his own race but claims to speak for them and calls them n-word behind thier back. I would just say to him "Fuck you, you have never helped anybody, ever."
 

Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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Ryuuken said:
First of all, to quote someone a few posts above me. I fail to see the racism here.

Second of all, it's ok to sit by and watch a black protagonist character mow down white people (GTA San Andreas), but yet when the tables are turned, everyone cries foul.
That's not fair comparing the RE series to the GTA series, c'mon it's GTA of course it's going to be controversial no matter what.
 

Sejs Cube

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Jun 16, 2008
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Let's see here.. a white guy and a chinese chick blow up a bunch of backwoods spaniard cultists that're all infected with an ancient parasite thing.


Totally not racist.


But the sequel? A white guy and a black chick blow up a bunch of backwoods african (townies? cultists? do we know yet?) folks that are all infected with a similar and likely identical ancient parasite thing, as the story unfolds tracking said parasite back to its roots. Spain and Africa having had just a smidge of historical relations since .. basically always.


B.b.but he's white! And there's black people! Break out the ship's bell because there's RACISM ahoy!


Re-goddamn-diculous.
 

Sejs Cube

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Jun 16, 2008
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Ryuuken said:
Second of all, it's ok to sit by and watch a black protagonist character mow down white people (GTA San Andreas), but yet when the tables are turned, everyone cries foul.
Nah, not exactly. One of the things that the GTA games have all had going for them is the fact that they don't discriminate. It's basically everyone vs everyone. You could be a white boy working against the Yakuza on tuesday, and by thursday you're working with them against your old buddies who sold you out AND a group of South American drug-runners at the same time.

It's all one big dysfunctional family.
 

SinisterDeath

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Nov 6, 2006
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Ronny1871 said:
Now, the true gripe is (according to my personal opinion), will they execute the characterization of Africans (i don't know the exact country just yet) as badly as they did with the Spanish farming community?
When I played RE4, I thought they were russian/ukranian...
 

SinisterDeath

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Nov 6, 2006
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slaygore said:
RottnCOD said:
Even Capcoms reply is racist, they should have referred to thier development team as "African American" not black.
You do know that Africa is not the only country with black people and that they don't just live in america or africa, especially coming from Capcom, a japanese company that does their work in Japan. Using the term African American would be a wrong use to distinguish their race.
I recall this kid, who immigrated from africa (or is it emigrated?)When in america and applying for financial aid for college, and it had the part that asked about 'race', he put down 'african american'. (same goes for the college he was applying to)
When he got to said college, and was greeted they stood tehre with mouth agape, because they were expecting to find a 'black' kid, not a 'white kid'.
So yea, those little 'check marks' are racist in and of them selves. Would it not be LESS racist if said forms didn't have any mention of race at all? And the only possible 'seperation' would be known languages? (Teachers trying to teach, or people trying to work with people who don't know english, in america can be a pain.)

That said.
Would a family of 'african-british' who have lived in England for 4 generations, and moved to england from holand, still be considered 'african-british'?
 

sammyfreak

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Dec 5, 2007
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laikenf said:
Why didn't anyone complain about the spanish villagers in R.E. 4, cause their spanish SUCKED :). But seriously, nobody screamed RACISM with that one, nope, they where just not black enough.
The root comes from that europeans/americans feel guilty towards africans, since we basicly caused their hideous problems.

I highly doubt the people working on the game actively tried to be offensive, the development process probably went something like: Hey! Lets set it in Africa! And there can be lots of scary Africans to kill!
But you might wonder why the american localisation team didn't mention that it might be interprited as offensive.
 

Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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SinisterDeath said:
I recall this kid, who immigrated from africa (or is it emigrated?)When in america and applying for financial aid for college, and it had the part that asked about 'race', he put down 'african american'. (same goes for the college he was applying to)
When he got to said college, and was greeted they stood tehre with mouth agape, because they were expecting to find a 'black' kid, not a 'white kid'.
So yea, those little 'check marks' are racist in and of them selves. Would it not be LESS racist if said forms didn't have any mention of race at all? And the only possible 'seperation' would be known languages? (Teachers trying to teach, or people trying to work with people who don't know english, in america can be a pain.)

That said.
Would a family of 'african-british' who have lived in England for 4 generations, and moved to england from holand, still be considered 'african-british'?
I think the reason that America has those types of labels on people is because (from my knowledge) America was built on immigrants. We got germans in Texas, Spainards in the south, Canadians in the north, british in the north east (i think) and plenty of others that i'm sure would give us dozens of "cultural labels" like "German-American" or "British American"

The point being, to my knowlege no other country has such a diverse culture around the world. If i moved to Britain would i consider myself an American-British? No, i'd either be an American or British.