Y NOT

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endlessnine:

dear resident evil tag,

I AM PREFACING THIS DISCUSSION WITH THE NOTE THAT I AM NOT TELLING YOU THAT YOU CANNOT LIKE RESIDENT EVIL! PLEASE, BY ALL MEANS, CONTINUE TO LIKE AND PLAY RESIDENT EVIL GAMES TO SUPPORT THE GAME INDUSTRY! however, i have recently seen people in the resident evil tag dismiss claims of racism, and i would like to address this

let’s talk about resident evil 5; i love(d?) resident evil as much as the next capcom fan, but we need to stop denying that resident evil 5 is problematic

it’s problematic

capcom may not have produced the game with racist intent - i don’t work for capcom and i have no idea what the writers / designers were thinking

however, just because someone “didn’t mean to be racist” doesn’t make them immune from saying and doing problematic things

the absence of intent does not excuse certain elements of racism that appear in resident evil 5; you may roll your eyes and scoff and say “they’re killing zombies who happen to be african, IN AFRICA! that’s not racist!”

i’m not going to touch the zombie argument with a ten foot pole, and i instead direct you to consider these problematic elements

chris redfield is a white hero who enters a fictional african country and saves the africans who were unable to save themselves

“but chris is a staple character” you’re going to say, “he’s been a main character of the resident evil series since the very first game!”

you’re correct, he has; however, in what way does that make a story about a beefed up white hero saving the poor africans from themselves less racist?

sheva’s alternate costume is “tribal”

the tribal costume, where do i start? check out the pictures i have included at the top of this post! if this costume is “tribal” as the name suggests, then what fictional tribe is sheva supposed to represent? what do the elements of the costume represent? no one and nothing appears to be the answer to these questions, so we are left to assume that sheva’s tribal costume is “tribal” because it “looks african”, without any context as to what that actually means

i’m not even going to address the blatant oversexualization of the costume in the interest of saving space for the current discussion about racism

sheva’s “tribal” costume uses a bow and arrow

let me say that again for you

sheva’s “tribal” costume uses a bow and arrow

a bow and arrow guys

this is a game with the most advanced (albeit fictional) arsenal of weapons that 2009 had to offer

and sheva’s tribal costume comes with a bonus BOW AND ARROW

i assume this is another “it looks african” generalization made by capcom

my last and most important point is this, which is a general statement about the nature of racism in western culture

you do not get to decide what is and is not racist

if you have to sit and wonder whether something is racist or not, it’s probably racist, and if you are completely disconnected from the racial, national, ethnic, or what have you group that is being depicted, i’m sorry, but you don’t get a say as to whether something is racist or not

resident evil is a fun series that we all play, but they really fucked up

as responsible gamers and adults (i am assuming we are all adults due to the game rating) we can enjoy a series while acknowledging its problematic elements for what they are

tl;dr acknowledge that resident evil 5 has some racist elements regardless of how you feel about resident evil and capcom

have a nice day

Wow I think I hate you.