Resi Evil 5 isn't racist, says BBFC News

It isn't racist......but it is rubbish.

/ decides to pass and wait for reboot "make it snappy Capcom!"

The next question would be - is it racist to think that anything abusive between a black character and a white character is automatically racist? People can be idiots and fight each other, whatever their skin colour, without any need for racism to be involved. Especially when one of them craves human flesh (as happens all the time in Croydon).

I'm glad the BBFC are being logical about this. I diudn't even think about the rating, but as an 18 I think anyone who can legally purchase it can debate the issue in a mature manor. In theory, anyway.

I'm partially with bad09, I might pass and wait for the Resi 6 they were so quick to shout "It'll be different!" about.

@ DFawkes

Yeah exactly, that statement damned it for me it was either "We thought you'd like but you don't from the demo so we'll try again next time..." or "man I just made a stinker you will not like this game guys, back to the drawing board"

Either way to me it was a damning thing to say just before your game comes out.

/ still since I saw 5 I was always planning a 2nd hand buy so may still pick it up (4 is still on my shelf and I did buy that light gun one on PS1 after all)

The next question would be - is it racist to think that anything abusive between a black character and a white character is automatically racist? People can be idiots and fight each other, whatever their skin colour, without any need for racism to be involved.

Depend on context, doesn't it? The implication in the previews is that there was no obvious reason for that particular woman being white other than playing into the old 'black savages stealing our women' style' stereotype. And in many cases if you're presented with a group of one, uniform ethnicity apparently randomly attacking another different ethnicity, the first thought of motive is racism.

Appears that Capcom edited that scene, anyway. And I'm always wary of confusing racism with simple naivety on the developers part.

I'm amazed how much common sense the BBFC have shown in recent years.

Also -

And in many cases if you're presented with a group of one, uniform ethnicity apparently randomly attacking another different ethnicity, the first thought of motive is racism.

I regard immediate assumptions like that as BEING racist.
Anything involving immediate assumptions based on race, the observer is the one bringing race into it, before they even look into the reasons for it. Even the nazis murdering millions of Jews, you CANNOT say it was racially motivated until you look at the surrounding circumstances of incitement to racial hatred. Gassing millions of Jews could be motivated by anything at all when taken with no context whatsoever. Assumption of racism BEFORE examining the circumstances, THAT is racist.

I'm with Doctor_What - surely automatically assuming racism exists when conflict is shown between two people of different racial groups is in fact a form of racism.

Good on the BBFC for pointing out that the game is set in Africa and therefore is likely to contain a rather higher proportion of black people than white. Anyone who doesn't understand that point needs to re-examine their values.

i thought dragging a blond woman of any race wouldve been seen as a problems anyways?

Before you shot the first guy in the first Resident Evil game, there was a cutscene establishing him as a Zombie. We were well off into fantasyland long before we pulled the trigger for the first time. All hostiles were dehumanized before the fighting started.

Resident Evil 4 started a concerning tradition. The first Spanish villagers seemed perfectly ok. They do not appear as Zombies at first, they appear as hostile human beings. Some kind of Euro-Rednecks who will happily kill every stranger. That left a bad taste no matter how you turn it. The first 15 minutes, those Spanish guys (and the cops too!) convey a very xenophobic picture of rural Spain.

If Resident Evil 5 does the same, I can see why the racism squad is on high alert. Even if it is not really racists, we get to see some ugly side of humanity that is not particularly entertaining. It is a stretch to say that by depicting one hostile town, the developers are conveying a racist message about all of Afrika. That is utter nonsense. But it would be more elegant to instantly address the hostility of people as the result of something draining them of their humanity. If we instantly perceived the picture of the hostile black town as a place where something has gone wrong, then there is little problem. When we fool ourselves into thinking xenophobic townships are the norm, then it will be an issue.

If you want to portray a scary violent region Africa (unfortunately) is the one of the best places to do it. This is nothing to do with race and everything to do with colonialism and cold war arms subsidies propping up monster dictators.

Would have been more racist if there were no black people in Africa.

This is such a non-issue imo.

What about that other cut scene that Eurogamer mentioned? The one that they couldn't disclose?

Ok you know the scene the BBFC have talked about is NOT the scene everyone is calling racist right?

So either the scene was changed or they are somehow looking at one of the later scenes with this woman (when Chris goes to rescue her from an upstairs room).

There's your verdict. Longing to hear m0th4r call the BBFC a bunch of racists now.

I really don't know how Capcom could set a resident evil game in Africa and not have violent black people in it. Like it or not there are violent people in Africa right now (as there are on every continent). So does it mean that basically no one can set a game in Africa now for fear of offending overly sensitive people?

Who cares this resi sucks ass! The controlles are some of the worst I've ever experienced.

Utter shit!!! should be banned!

...but as an 18 I think anyone who can legally purchase it can debate the issue in a mature manor. In theory, anyway.

Either that or they're too far gone already and it won't make much difference :)

@Sunyavadin

You obviously aren't Jewish, and I've got to say your statements weren't particularly smart; quite the contrary, statements like yours have the propensity to incite a lot of anger in the affected race; I daresay if you had family members -- with an s -- in those chambers, you wouldn't run your mouth like you just did. Your argument is hollow, and ad hominem, firstly because because you pre-suppose that the gas chambers could have been built for some other reason (they weren't, those chambers were built as the Nazis tool for ethnic cleansing, specifically for genocide against the Jews and the minority Romanies as apparently Hilter didn't take kindly to their Indian roots. But the Nazis also threw in homosexuals, physically disabled and retarded people, and bizarrely, the smartest people -- mostly scientists -- that refused to use their talent for the "fuhrer") and secondly because you seem to vaguely imply that the gas chambers -- if motivated by some other reason besides racism -- might be acceptable. What?

Anyway the less we say about the Nazis the better, but to dismiss one of the worst cases of racial genocide as -- under whatever circumstances -- not being racist, is, well.. I'll reserve any further comments. I've only said this much because your comments really hurt.

About this topic, Resident Evil 5 is a great game; whether or not it's racist is up to the gamers to decide. Personally? I don't think it is racist, but that doesn't mean I'll get it on Launch day. SF IV will do plenty till I can find Resident Evil 5 in the bargain bin.

Still on topic, people can have whatever misconceptions they want about ethnic minorities, but everyone is an individual to be judged for who they are, not by the color of their skin; the White House is now proof of that. So, my point is this: Those guys dragging the lady off, are meant to be monsters, same as all the monsters in the rest of the [Resident Evil] franchise. The fact that they are black doesn't mean they should be spared an uppercut, or sniper's bullet, by whomever the protagonist is :-D

I think the BBFC are smart enough to see through whatever thinly-veiled racial undertone shrouds Capcom's latest game, and besides this issue of race, as it relates to Resident Evil 5, is getting increasingly tedious...

Dear Eurogamer and every other gaming blogging website,

This is not an issue.

Thanks,

Gamers with common sense

so, would that make eurogamer's mr whitehead's "there's a cut-scene of a white blonde woman being dragged off, screaming, by black men" page-view generating tabloidery, then?

God what a non issue.

Maybe all black characters in games should be given infinite health so no one can be a racist in the future.

'[Editor's note, 9.51am: Having played through the code myself, I can confirm that the man doing the initial dragging is not black. When you enter the room, however, you face off against the monster version of the blonde girl and several black men. We'll very likely be exploring the specifics of this further in a blog post soon.] '

Why bother? You are just stirring the shit and trying to generate controversy.

I can also recall a lot of black zombies in the previous games but now that the gmae is set in Africa it's racist? I hate the PC brigade.

Im f**king disgusted that eurogamer even asked the BBFC! The more people that highlight these non-issues, the more it gets put in the public eye. Well done...*clap*....*clap*....

You do seem to be rather pushing this agenda, EG. Just saying, like.

@ Kissthestick "i thought dragging a blond woman of any race wouldve been seen as a problems anyways?"

Agreed, especially if it was a blond Inuit Woman in Africa, that would be plain weird..

Yeah, seems like entire world less Eurogame and Dan Whitehead see nothing racist whatsoever in this game. It would appear that some people are either too sensitive to this kind of depiction of violence or are too keen to be seen as sensitive to people in minority groups, even though they themselves are not part of those groups.

The last year with Eurogamer has seen it change for the worse in my opinion. It has tried to become more like Edge in treating videogames as some kind of high art and has become more tabloid in its sensationalist attitude to things, Resi 5 and the PS3 vs Xbox360 articles in particular.

Well done BBFC. I would have thought they would be the first to scream for cuts if the game was beign naughty.

If you see a white person committing a crime and then remember it as a black person, it is YOU that is the racist!.

Google it! There is a genuine psychological study on exactly that perception.

So, it took just 15mins for Sunyavadin to fall foul of Godwin's Law ?

Even in this place that's a startlingly poor show.

@worstgamerever

It seems to me that Sunyavadin's post is about not jumping to conclusions, rather than defending the holocaust.

"you CANNOT say it was racially motivated until you look at the surrounding circumstances of incitement to racial hatred"

Seems to me Sunyavadin is suggesting that it wouldn't be appropriate to assume that re5 is racist because you have heard there is a white woman being dragged off by one/many black men, until you have some background insight to suggest that this is the case. Using the holocaust as an example is perhaps ill-judged and somewhat insenstive but I don't see any defense of the holocaust in those comments nor claims that it may not have been racially motivated. Ironically it sounds like you may have jumped to a conclusion.

Why do I get the impression EG want Resident Evil to be racist so they can make a few articles about it. First you make stories saying that it probably is a bit racist, then you make more stories saying that it turns out it isn't. You'd of been better off just not reporting the whole issue and thus not making it into one to begin with imo

I think the nail was hit on the head when she pointed out that in Resi 4, you shoot Spanish people because its set in Spain. In Resi 5 you shoot African people because its set in Africa.

I don't think Capcom should have had to write in a sideplot where white people are shipped into Africa to have some virus tested on them just so overly sensitive people don't cry after playing it. The BBFC have seen common sense.

I am a lefty liberal pinko scum and even I do not see an issue with this. Eurogamer, please sort yourself out. You sound like the Daily Mail.

Aww, EG failed to kick up a shit storm. EG = Daily Mail of game sites.

It's fucking Africa, there are bound to be more black people there. Why can nobody get over this? We might offend someone who really needs to get over themselves. Oh no!

It's more Kiziko who are making a meal out of a molehill. If I remember rightly they are run or managed by someone of a black/asian background and they seem to be ripping this to pieces for no apparent reason. Pathetic.

lordy..I assume they must have missed the black fella in the friday the 13th remake getting chopped up..in the woodpile!!

that surely is a more racist slant


people are too easily outraged or read far too much into stuff...its a game..you shoot people..surely that in itself would be considered wrong

"As the whole game is set in Africa it is hardly surprising that some of the characters are black, just like the fact that some of the characters in an earlier version were Spanish as the game was set in Spain"


Is this really that hard for some people to grasp?

This website is officially a pile of shit

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but this article is a non-story

Stop wasting time reporting on stories or issues that are not issues and report on content that people actually want to hear about

So what if a white woman is being dragged by black men originally, WTF is the problem with that and where does race come into it?

At the end of the day its the solitude of the act and not the race of the people that determine if it will offend people or not

That's up for us gamers to decide

Eurogamer. it's 2009 get a grip!

Complete and utter BS

In future I think I will stick to Kotaku for my gaming news

They seem to be alot more grown up about reporting issues compared to you guys

This sort of level-headed approach is exactly why we should allow the BBFC to oversee all gaming rating classifications here in the UK. It's...It's..It's so goddamned sensible!

To be honest, there's a lot of negativity towards Eurogamer here and I don't understand why. They're just reporting on something that people find interesting. If you don't like this site, why are you on it? I strongly doubt they're purposefully trying to stir up trouble; the game did that on its own.

this stinks of deliberate lies for hits and then revelation of lies for even more hits eurogamer is becoming very cynical these days

In the land of video game fantasy the entire human race has been threatened with extermination on countless ocassions and here we are getting upset about a handful of people from one specific ethnic group. Quite frankly I 'd like to see the efforts of EG directed at homocidal alien races who care not a jot it seems for human equality or rights.

@monkeylite
technically a liberal would condone freedom of speech, it's the conservatives that'd get offended by this

@Razorus
the problem is that eurogamer appear to have initially fabricated a cut-scene to support their own agenda.

@worstreaderever

You clearly ignored my entire post.

My point was that with the concentration camps - you could NOT judge simply on the fact that it happened, it was racist. You make that judgement ONCE YOU KNOW the full circumstances. Then, clearly IT WAS.

The same point stands here. You look at the situation with two people of different races involved, and assume something based on only that fact - YOU ARE BEING RACIST.

*Edit* - also - nobody called godwin yet. Slackers.

This is perhaps the stupidest article i've read since Ellie decided to inundate Eurogamer with last years "Where's Maddie?" non-issue.

@Razorus

No they are not reporting on something people find interesting. If all us where upset about this sort of thing. There would be alot of people boycotting games that are not politcally correct.

This is article written to generate hits and no more so.

Maybe they should read about what the definition of racism is below.

rac⋅ism   [rey-siz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

None of this noise was generated when Resident Evil 4 was released, so why now?

For the record, I am Black British and I am not offended!

I wonder, if it was an ad for, say Empire:Total War, with a gang of dirty black men in rags beating a white man in fine brocade to death savagely.... Would it be criticised for negative black stereotyping?

Or praised for applauding the few slave rebellions of the time?

Eurogamer is wrong.

Eurogamer is wrong

Someone is WRONG?

On the INTERNET?