Some of my best developers are black, says Resi Evil 5 producer Comments by Ellie Gibson

N'Gai Croal was perfectly happy to shoot Spaniards in the last game, the racist bastard.

Why is it racist when black people become zombies, but not when white or hispanic people become zombies?

I like the headline EG ;)

seriously though, all the racisms cries now are nothing to what will happen when the game is actually released and a whole army of PC police find out there is a game where black people get shot by a white man.

This lot is the calm before the storm trust me....

Some of my best developers are black, says Resi Evil 5 producer

At no point does he say this! Ridiculous title, I think it should be changed to something a little less sensationalist!

Once again it is the white man, trying to keep the brother down.

Surely the entire series is racist. Its not like they've ever made a Resident Evil game with Japanese zombies.

At no point does he say this! Ridiculous title, I think it should be changed to something a little less sensationalist!

It's a joke ("some of my best friends are black"), but I'll admit a not particularly funny one.

I laughed

Yeah, I get the 'joke' and sure if it was in the strap line it'd probably be fine, but not as the thread title! You should change it!

Of course it's super racist to assume there would be black people in Africa. They should've made all the characters white. That'd have been not racist.

Surely whoever keeps making these allegations is racist themselves, thinking African people deserve a different reaction to the Spanish from RE4. If I was Spanish I'd be damned insulted.

Anyway it's beside the point, they are ZOMBIES. Who cares what skin colour they have? They're trying to kill you, anyone would do the same in that situation.

I don't really care what skin colour they are. I just want a part of the game to feature proper T-virus zombies.

what i dont get is that the man does say the following:

"There are black members in the development team. We do have staff working on the game, who are aware of the historical background and we are constantly checking these kinds of things with them.

so you have to check 'these things' with black people on your staff? like asking 'is this ok, do you and your people consider this racist? No? wow...*phew*, thank god for that!'

that's absurd really. it's a game about zombies in africa. naturally the population is mostly black. no need to check anything with anyone. god, i hate this stupidity in the world.

I don't really care what skin colour they are. I just want a part of the game to feature proper T-virus zombies.

The slow ones? >_>

Zombies are a Haitian idea anyway - I think it's great that RE are giving credit where credit is due. IT BEGAN IN AFRICA.

"There are black members in the development team."

haha best quote ever.

so you have to check 'these things' with black people on your staff? like asking 'is this ok, do you and your people consider this racist? No? wow...*phew*, thank god for that!'

Well they DO have to have some accuracies about Africa in general, it'd be like Capcom creating the speech for the Spanish Zombies in RE4 with random stuff not knowing exactly what they are actually saying, not to mention they might inadvertently create a scene that gets people panties in a twist.

I bet the people who complain about this being racist aren't even black lol.

Who gives a fuck what N'Gai Croal says? Anyone who has watched the Bonus Round knows he is a cock with little to no journalistic talent.

"Zombies are a Haitian idea anyway - I think it's great that RE are giving credit where credit is due. IT BEGAN IN AFRICA."

+ 1 wizbob

So, it's racist for a Japanese developer to use an American character to shoot Spaniards/Africans? W.t.f.?

I just watched the trailer for the first time and I find it hard to see where any racist intention can be made. I would hazard a guess that anyone who can pick anything out from the video as being racist is trying very hard to do so and should take a look at themselves.

White Zombies: No problem.
Latin Zombies: No problem.
Black Zombies: Z0MG! YOU RACIST PIGS!!!!

Heh, I see that racism spans across all races.

Come on Ellie, that headline is a bit weaselly. Slipping standards at Eurogamer?

He did not say "some of my best developers are black". Obviously you're having a little joke at his expense by referencing the old "some of my best friends are black" racist chestnut, but how about you have your fun without baselessly implying someone is a closet racist? Unless Eurogamer is taking a hardline stance against having non-white videogame characters that you can shoot?

this wil lbe in the daily mail tomorrow

@steroyd

i understand they have to check those kinds of things. but thats not how i read the article. and it really doesn't matter if your black or not to complain about this type of thing. it's ridiculous that this is even an issue.

i don't think the major issue is there's black people in africa but the fact that they look like they're out of a turn of the last century tobacco adverts

Nobody said RE5 was racist. That's the strawman version, and it's insane that it's the one people have spent the most time arguing against.

What was actually said was that the promo stuff had racially offensive imagery. Given that it showed a white man blasting hordes of black men (for those not already familiar with the series, there was nothing to suggest they were zombies), it's really not the most radical interpretation of the text.

Also, I will pay $12 (plus costs) to the first person to scour the internet and tally how many times "so it's okay for_____ people to be zombies, but not black people?" has been said.

edit: the people complaining about Takeuchi's comments being misrepresented are giving me a nice big ironyrection

some of my best freinds are whi...oh wait

i don't think the major issue is there's black people in africa but the fact that they look like they're out of a turn of the last century tobacco adverts

Careful, that sort of common sense has no place here.

To reiterate, the issue isn't that there are black zombies, but that the image of an armed white man cautiously walking through an African village while black faces glare at him threateningly is loaded with meaning. There's a history at work here that is unique to Africa specifically, and black people in general, and by using that imagery to sell a fantasy experience the result is something that has an undeniable secondary layer of meaning. That history and imagery simply doesn't exist for Spanish people, so comparisons to Resident Evil 4 are way off-base.

The fact that the new female sidekick is light-skinned simply compounds this problem - it's a message that has been buried in our media for over 100 years, and still the notion endures of the "dark continent" where the darker the skin, the greater the threat. At best, Resident Evil 5 seems to be using that symbolism as a narrative short cut to put players on edge.

I don't think that makes Resident Evil 5 overtly racist, but the portrayal of Africa and Africans in the footage released so far is certainly problematic and insensitive, and people have every right to say as much. Not being able, or willing, to see or understand an issue doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

@Wizbob: Haiti is in central america.....

Remember kids, its perfectly okay to shoot up hordes of white people. But shooting black people is a sin and blatant racism.

That headline is awesome, anyone who doesn't like it is a miserable git.

Actually, now I'm curious to see the comments page for Dan's review of Soldier of Fortune: Payback. I remember it slammed the game pretty heavily for its choice of baddies.

...

Yep, same deal there. Bunch of variations on "so it's okay to shoot Germans and Russians, but not Muslims." People spout some truly staggering nonsense in their attempts to avoid the evils of political correctness. The voice of reason was a bit louder for that game, though. The only rational conclusion I can come to is that a lot of gamers are on Umbrella's payroll.

Your title is actually more offensive. At no point does he say "some of my best developers are black".

Good god, lighten up man.

@mcmonkeyplc and those people that think Haiti is in Africa... Haiti is a Caribbean island.

Listen to Dan, the voice of reason. There are more issues at stake here, so don't narrow them down to "white zombies = fine / black zombies = racism"...

political correctness gone mad...its a game about shooting zombies, if there is even 1 ounce of "realism" in the RE series at all i'll eat my hat.

ps. anyone claiming to be the "master of unlocking" is wrong clearly that is Jill valentine.

Good one mr. Whitehead. very sensible that.

And no, shooting Germans is not Okay. Shooting nazi's however ...

i look forward to reading the humanising written notes lefted by the black people re: their farming and community life before they started becoming evil killer zombies.

@DanWhitehead.
+1,000,000,000,000

Just when I thought that videogamers everywhere seemed to think like Monkey_chops So, it's racist for a Japanese developer to use an American character to shoot Spaniards/Africans? W.t.f.? , Nick_JC1 Don't know why capcom are surprised, black people could find racism in a cup of coffee that has milk added to it. and others, somebody finally hits the nail on the head. Strangely enough, my aunt said the exact same thing. She is from Ghana, if that makes a difference.

@frostcircus.
+1,000,000,000,000

That headline is awesome

Or more accurately, 'That headline is libelist', perhaps?

Racism is still a massive problem, and will never go away. but this is going to fucking far. if the hero was a black guy, and all the zombies were white, their wouldn't be a fucking problem.

Depending on the sales of Resident Evil 5 Capcom are considering offending pretty much everybody else.

Resident Evil 6 is reportedly going to be set in San Francisco and deals with the spread of a new form of virus that turns homosexuals into zombies. Following on from that Resident Evil 7 features yet another strain of virus that only functions in women and turns them into monsters but only for a few days a month. Resident Evil 8 is going to be slightly less offensive. It'll feature a virus that turns young children into monsters - after being forced to kill them all the protagonist will discover that its not really a virus at all, just puberty. Its then that he realises that killing them really was the best thing to do in the situation.

@patchbox360
This made me laugh a lot

and now I can't stop imagining the worst

This could have easily been fixed by just making the main character black. RE4 was less racist because it was a white guy killign white zombies, so there seemed to be no possible underlying sentiments, but because it's a white american killing black african zombies, it's easy to forget the context of zombie armageddon - especially since at the moment there are no 'good' black guys in the game to poinnt to and say 'look, this guy's your friend! we're not racist after all!'. I t think the whole 'but they shot hispanics and that was ok' argument is pretty meaningless, because aside from the fact that they're the same skin colour as the main guy in that game, there's not nearly the same amount of historical racism surrounding them. Especially, considering black people in the USA have been historically stereotyped as violent, stupid, animal-like, etc, it's easy to see why people might get upset when a game like this might (unintentionally) reinforce those negative stereotypes.
edit: Just realised the good Rev. Whitehead has said most of what I've just tried to say, but probably more clearly. But yes, that's the core of what i'm trying to say - the 'if it was a black guy killing white zombies there would be no fuss the hypocrites' argument simply doesnt work because there is a genuine historical grievence for black people all around the world.

All baddies in all games / films / books ever should be middle-class, middle aged straight white males with no disabilities.

"Overally PC" is an argument I would expect from the BNP, not here.

The sins of our fathers blah blah.

How long must we feel guilty for the actions of our great-grand fathers.

In a real world example, Zimbabwe is still blaming Britain for its problems 30 years on and rather be responsible for their own actions and make positive change .

I say its time to let go and move on.

johnnybrn, Move on yes, but not irrespective of the past. It would be irresponsible to let go.