Resident Evil 5 Flirts With Racism?

The trouble arises when Capcom "deliberately uses loaded discriminatory imagery for dramatic effect".

By Kikizo Staff

'Racist' is a big, flammable term to be throwing around, especially with regard to something as trivial (in theory) as entertainment, but we regret to reveal that it's sometimes applicable to Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil 5.

Kikizo's hands-on preview, based on a final build, concedes that the latest entrant in the survival horror series inherits its control scheme and design base from its predecessor, but praises the new co-op component, which "could prove transformative, dredging additional depth and detail out of ostensibly out-moded components." The game's considerable promise, we argue, makes its 'occasional flirtation with racism' all the more unfortunate.

Our argument focusses on one scene in particular:

"At one point you and Sheva glimpse a woman struggling with a group of Majini on a balcony overlooking a street. She's a white westerner - prominently, unmistakeably so, with waist-length platinum blonde hair, idealised Anglo-Saxon facial features and a skimpy black lace night dress. She screams for aid, but is overpowered and dragged back into the building. When you eventually reach her, she has been impregnated with the Los Plagos virus and must be destroyed. As our chums at Eurogamer have pointed out, the scene dovetails smoothly with that classic racist trope of the brutal black male 'corrupting' the white man's womenfolk. There's zero justification for the woman's appearance in the plot - the scene exists, as far as I can see, purely to outrage and titillate players whose cultural background is saturated with such unwholesome ideas."

The article qualifies this somewhat by observing that "a game in which you, a white American special forces agent, shoot down hostile mutants who happen to be non-white peasants is not racist per se" - the trouble arises when Capcom "deliberately uses loaded discriminatory imagery for dramatic effect."

We conclude by hoping that the scene mentioned is the worst instance of prejudiced imagery the game has to offer, as "Resident Evil 5 deserves to be remembered for more than the unpleasantly black-and-white Africa it occasionally paints."

Head over to our forums to discuss the issue. Please leave all blunt implements and firearms at the door...