racism? no.

When I first saw the ugly Resident Evil 5 racism conspiracy raise its head, I edged away from it, thinking it wasn't too relevant to YFG. And then I realized I was being a silly, lazy person, and have decided to toss in my few cents on the issue.

Resident Evil is hearkened as a consistently good zombie-killin' game. The player typically assumes the role of the protagonist, and sets out to weed zombies out of a certain area. But it isn't just a good ole zombie-blasting time. RE has a reputation for having puzzle-solving elements and being very plot-driven (meaning you're killing zombies for a reason AND there's other things going on in the storyline). RE is usually set in a rural, almost deserted area, probably to kick the creepiness up. RE has taken gamers to a variety of environments, which allows for more of a variety in gameplay. But the RE franchise hadn't hit a problem until the RE5 trailer debuted, showing a desert-like setting in Africa and the white male protagonist shooting the now-infected black zombies.

The race issue exploded on the Internet, and even got some coverage on G4, a TV station focusing on gaming. Some activists are really getting fired up about it.

"But activist/media analyst/blogger Kym Platt is seeing red over the trailer to Resident Evil 5. According to Platt (and others on the web) the trailer shown at this year's E3 is "problematic on so many levels." The vid, according to Platt, depicts 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." -G4TV.com

"Start them young... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people"? If game designer's purposely designed games like this, chances are they'd be out of the job and fired before you could say "awful human being." The game is set in Africa in order to provide a new gaming experience, not to breed racism. Besides, in all past RE games, victims have been primarily white, and depending on location, Hispanic. I know, the trailer looks bad, but RE stands to become a stale, repetitive series if they keep sending gamers on missions to creepy woods in the boonies, deserted cities/villages, treks through the mountains and over the freezing snows. Capcom is trying to give gamers a new and exciting experience; send gamers to a place they haven't been before. Seriously, I can't remember the last game I've seen that was set in Africa, and probably for this same reason.

Please, Capcom is not singling out a race. They are not trying to make Klan members out of your kids. As a middle-class white kid, I don't claim to understand what it's like to be targeted by racism or the history that comes with being oppressed for so many years. I just don't believe that Capcom's intentions for this game have racist roots (for the reasons listed above), and don't think they should be perceived as such.

**will edit: add link to trailer, pics, any more links? gottta go to work