RE5

I was going to blog about the “Rise and fall of the SABC” (South African Broadcasting Corporation) but something else has just caught my eye today so I will do the SABC story some other time soon.

Currently, on a blog called Black Looks, a blog about black pride an other such issues, a maelstrom has broken out about the pc/console game Resident Evil 5.

One of the contributors for the blog, Kym Platt, wrote a post accusing the games producers of being racist and held it up as an example of white racism. Although Platt has some very anti-white racist views of her own, making her a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to such issues, this is not what interests me in this instance.

Platt’s point of view is wrong for many reasons. The game’s plot has historically taken place in relatively random places across the world, Resident Evil 4, for example, was set in Spain and no-one there complained that it was promoting an anti-Spanish prejudice. The game is also produced by a Japanese company, Capcom Co., and not a white run and owned developer as the writer insinuates.

Anyway, this has stirred up a huge fuss on Black Looks and the average number of comments for a post on the blog has shot up from the usual 3-15 to 130-230 for the two posts about RE5. It has drawn a lot of attention, mostly from a very outspoken gaming community, to this relatively obscure blog.

What surprises me the most is how defensive the gaming community is of its favourite games. This might be brought about by years of criticism from mainstream media about violent games and warnings that it is promoting violence; warnings that have time and again been proven to be unfounded.

Some of the comments are the usual ignorant, emotional, and racist responses that one would expect from what many would consider a ‘race baiting’ article. Others, however, are surprisingly eloquent and well thought through opinions.

There is still a lot of racism in this world which must be stamped out where ever it is found. This is particularly true of anti-black racism. However comments and posts like the one Platt has made only serve to exacerbate the problem by playing into the hands of racists, off all hues, and by cheapening the word ‘racist’ by labelling anything they don’t like as racist, even when it is clearly not so.

Links:
Black Looks blog: http://www.blacklooks.org
Black Looks article: Resident Evil 5
Black Looks article: where lies the resident evil
Resident Evil website