ARE ZOMBIES POST-RACE?
I'm not ashamed of admitting that I played Resident Evil 4 many times over...on two different platforms no less. I've been looking forward to the fifth sequel in the series...until I saw the trailer:
A White protagonist gunning down hordes of African zombies? What the f--- were the folks at Capcom thinking?
Commentators at the Village Voice have been one of several sites to comment on what seems to be a supremely problematic set of images and ideologies being stirred up here. One comment is quoted as noting: "Is it just me, or is there something subtly racist about gunning down mobs of angry Africans?" I'd suggest there's nothing remotely "subtle" going on here. White hero. Evil Black zombies. KILL KILL KILL.
Not surprisingly, as what happens when anything obviously racist (or sexist or homophobic or...) gets noted, the chorus of denialists responds quickly and loudly. There's the common, though pathetically limp defense: "it's just a game." People who think they're more clever try to argue, "all the previous RE games have involved White zombies yet no one was complaining about that" which is pure red herring since it's not addressing the core question of whether or not the images themselves are racist.
I was jabbering about this with some folks yesterday, and we were joking that a more theoretical defense would be that zombies, since they're not human (anymore) could be considered post-race as well. This is also known as the "evil, mind-destroying zombie viruses see no color" defense.
In all seriousness though, I can't wait to see how Capcom tries to spin this one.
Read more at the GameSpot summary.
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