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Meaning & Race
By Corvus | April 15, 2008
I debated for some time whether to say anything about N’gai Croal’s discussion of the Resident Evil 5 trailer on the MTV Multiplayer blog (Original Interview and Follow up Article). So many people have written such great posts on it already at The Brainy Gamer, Cruise Elroy and so many other places, that I thought, just maybe, I could get away with not speaking up this time.
You see, while I can leap to the defense of women and cry, “Misogyny!” without issue [1], I have a very difficult time talking about racism. It is the one topic that is almost guaranteed to spark such a deep anger within me that my ears begin to buzz and I have difficultly thinking rationally. My muscles tenses, my head begins to ache and I can feel a pit of pain deep within my stomach.
I led an overly protected childhood in many ways. Woefully under protected in others, but that’s another topic I have difficulty remaining calm about. But if the violence or civil unrest happened outside the four walls of our home, I was allowed to remain ignorant of it. I was 11 or 12 years old when I saw a Klu Klux Klan march on the news. I stared in horror as people in white sheets paraded down a major street in my city–Austin, Texas. I began to cry because until that moment, I had assumed the KKK were a thing of fiction. Some terrible product of our cultural imagination like werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster. Only, the KKK was even worse than that because they could be anyone. Anyone at all. Seemingly normal, but capable of so much hatred that they had to hide their faces in order to fully express it. I was crushed and my remaining time in Texas was spent doing everything within my power to set myself apart from the establishment. But ultimately, I found myself powerless in the face of it. One moment I’d be talking to someone about a movie, the next they’d be telling me a racist joke, leading off with the N word. I’d ask them to stop, only to be told it was just a harmless joke and that some of their, “best friends are black.” Then, despite my protests, the joke would be continued. Most of the time I was able to walk away before the fists began to fly.
I’ve since lived all across the country and I can’t say it’s that much better everywhere else, although the racism in the mid-west is decidedly quieter than in the south and north-east.
But Michael said this to me in the comments of his post and I knew I had to say something:
I wish more people from within the industry would step forward more visibly to address the issues raised here. It seems to me most of the responses have come from journos and bloggers – which is great – but I don’t get a strong feeling that the industry itself is committed to dealing with this in proactive ways. You’re more connected to writers and developers than me, so perhaps I’m missing something important, but from where I stand it’s hard to see the industry’s push for change.
…and he’s right. Where are the developers, designers, writers and publishers in this conversation? I suspect many of them have as difficult time as I do voicing their feelings of powerlessness in the face of racism. They have probably assured themselves, like I did, that there were enough people echoing their thoughts. Or they observed that this appears to be a media issue, that it’s not necessary to wade into the fray. There’s also a strong belief, I suspect, that there is far more risk than benefit involved with getting into a public dialog on the topic of race. So, sit back, wait for the air to clear and move on. But even if a developer doesn’t want to specifically talk about the RE5 trailer, N’Gai’s observations and the resulting conversation have certainly provided enough context to discuss the issues involving race in relation to our own projects as well.
Regardless, silence is not really an option. We must speak. We may not be perfect, we may draw fire from portions of the community, but if we do not get involved with this issue then we are perpetuating the stunted maturity levels and social issues that are quite obviously prevalent within the industry.
I’ve seen it argued that this is a non-issue since the game was developed in Japan where there is no public dialog about racism. Sounds like a good argument for hiring a localization expert to help ensure your video game doesn’t spark issues you didn’t intend it to address. Videogames of this caliber ought not be produced in a teapot. Think about your audience, think about your message, examine the themes of your game. Don’t accidentally tread on toes. Treading on toes with the intent to start a dialog is fine, but be prepared to engage on the topic as is escalates outside the realm of your game.
I’ve seen it argued that discussing the trailer’s depiction of violence against black people is unfair to the game. This may be true, and correct me if I’m wrong here, a trailer is supposed to successfully communicate the tone and experience of the video game or movie it represents. It a trailer pushes as many hot buttons as this one has, it is imperative that we talk about it and the game it represents. I’d love to find out that these issues are addressed within the game itself–that the decision to set RE5 in Africa, to have a large corporation experimenting on the populations of poor villages, is part of a grander social statement. I’d love to find that there are intelligent and courageous allies from these same villages in the game. Allies that have a lot to say about the casual and cruel destruction of their people. I doubt, however, that this will be the case.
I’ve only ever played one Resident Evil game fully through. To my memory, the protagonists never expressed regret that the lives they were taking once belonged to fellow human beings. “Monsters are monsters and are only to be thought of in that regard,” seemed to be the operating principle that ruled the day. Perhaps I’m wrong? It’s the same mentality that led to the terrible ending in the theatrical release of I Am Legend.[2] To my mind, this is a sentiment that would sound right at home being shouted from under a white sheet before a burning cross.
Interestingly, I see parallels between this, “act like nothing is wrong,” approach and the removal of sex, violence and other potentially discomforting topics from our fairy tales. It’s often done in the interest of protecting our children and all it does is open them up for disillusionment and disappointment in the future. People, by and large, crave meaning. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be drawn to the Fight Clubs and Bioshocks. We may be uncomfortable with the discussion at time, but if we continue to sweep meaning under the rug, by not addressing cultural themes within our games and ignoring issues like this when they arise, we’re not doing anyone any favors–not ourselves, not our studios, not our audience, not our children and not our neighbors’ children.
Thank you, N’Gai Croal, for ripping up our carpets and showing us how how dirty our baseboards have become.
[1] Perhaps this is because over the years I have had the support and friendship of so many amazing women who are able to overlook my gender and accept, even welcome, my anger and outrage on their behalf. I know it’s not always easy to believe that a member of the status quo really gives a crap about your position, so I’d like to take this moment to thank these remarkable women. Rachel, Lojo, Jodi, Tamara, Lisa, Stephanie, Dayna, Michelle and so many others… thank you. Thank you for accepting that some of us actually care and letting us carry the torch for you when your arms get tired.
[2] The better ending is included on the HD versions and dual disk sets or can be watched here.
Tagged:n'gai croal, public dialog, racism, resident evil 5. | 17 Comments »
April 15th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Thanks for this post, Corvus, and for your compassionate approach to the subject. I think you make an important connection between your visceral feelings now and your experiences growing up. I live in Indiana, who elected a Klansman governor in 1924, and I grew up 35 miles from the house where the elected “Grand Dragon” of the KKK lived throughout my childhood.
When you see it this close to you, it’s impossible not to be affected in one way or another. Today I see my son and other kids his age being raised in a culture that celebrates Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday and embraces an educational curriculum that teaches kids racism is wrong. In a sadly ironic way, I think many of these kids have developed a notion that racism is bad, but it’s also dead. It’s something you read about and watch documentaries about, but it’s not something that touches you in the ways we were touched by it growing up. To many of these kids, racism is a subject you study at school, and they’re sort of sick of hearing about it.
Like you, I’m trying to understand the response to N’Gai’s remarks, and this is an effort in that direction. I could be completely wrong. But for some reason I keep thinking about it, trying to figure it out.
Thanks again for your post. I hope the game industry is listening.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Odd, I also grew up in Austin, TX.
I have not read N’gai’s article and I’m not sure I’m going to. I saw the RE5 trailer in January when I first got my 360. All I can say is that it made me feel uncomfortable.
Those were supposed to be zombies right? This mob of Africans being gunned down in droves are zombies, right? I feel like I needed some kind of assurance after I watched that. I felt unsettled.
I think we get too sensitive about race at times. I think people are way to quick to play the race card. I think people are too quick to find offense where there is none. I think people are immune to satire or social commentary.
I think about all of that and my stomach was still unsettled. Why did they make this game? I kind of filed it away, decided not to think about it anymore and steer clear of the game come release.
Now people are talking about it, and perhaps Capcom has some explaining to do. Maybe it’s good that people are talking about it. I’m not hopeful for change though.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I dunno. In some ways I think the RE5 trailer is too easy a target. We can go after it and pat ourselves on the back that we are being O so sensitive.
But the truth is a huge percentage of the video game content that we don’t think twice about is nearly as disturbing and offensive if you sit down and stare at it.
Consider two recent examples where the main gameplay mechanic in the game is to kill minorities of various kinds:
1. Crackdown
2. Drake’s Fortune (to be fair, I only played the demo of this one…)
And yet there was no uproar or blogger fury.
It’s not that I am advocating that we remove this sort of content completely from the shelves. That would be dumb. But I do think that the developers and consumers of this content need to learn how to evaluate it more realistically.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am
The “Japanese culture” excuse is doubly weak. The trailer is not only disturbing because it echoes American stereotypes and racist imagery. It also raises the issue of Western interference in Africa and colonialism. Japan is active in development efforts. Saying that they’re not aware of our racial heritage holds no water, because there is a wider context that Japanese developers could most certainly access.
psu’s comment is true (although at least Yachtzee made multiple references to the “kill brown people” mechanic of Drake’s Fortunte), gamers and developers should be better about the less obvious examples. But the fact that RE has a big target painted on its chest doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go after it. It might be useful to use this as a way to lead into a discussion of those other offenders, however.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I did see at least one blog reference Crackdown’s racial bias. Perhaps it was on Tea Leaves, eh?
April 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Well said Corvus. Bill Harris wrote a great post about exactly WHY the imagery of the RE5 trailer is so disturbing, to counter the “noone complained about shooting Spanish zombies” crowd. I thought you might appreciate it: http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2008/04/race-and-resident-evil-5-trailer.html
April 15th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Is there racial bias in Crackdown? Sure, the gangs are all some kind of ethnic minority, but the protagonist can be just about every ethnicity we typically think of. Also, I dealt with all Hispanic gangs back in Austin when I worked for the Sheriff’s office. Ethnic gangs are very much a reality, often tempered by other minority citizens that are just everyday Joes (or Joses if you prefer)
I think there is a real difference between depicting a someone as a villian who happens to be a minority and depicting a someone as villian because they are a minority.
Bill Harris had an excellent write up on classic racist imagery. He’s right to, I see it in the trailer.
I don’t know that Capcom was trying to make the association that Africans are bad in some way, I think it’s the manner of depiction and the utter lack of zombie-like qualities that I find so disturbing. To see this horde of pitchfork wielding villagers being mowed down by a guy whiter than me evokes something uncomfortable.
I normally don’t give two craps about political correctness or offensiveness, but there’s something her disturbing that is kicking off my cognitive dissonance really hard.
I didn’t particularly care for the implied racism of GTA: San Andreas, enough that I never played it. This goes a step beyond that.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
That is a good post. Thank you for sharing the link, Matthew (and Jason whose post I retrieved from the moderation queue).
April 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
All Croal shows is how little ground we have covered in discussing racism. His argument is weak, based primarily upon 1950s movies, and shows we as a country will actively seek the “We should be offended” atmosphere.
This is fascinating, looking at the reasons why people are offended. Croal’s offended often times is different from the reasons everyone else is offended. Both are fairly weak though. Croal’s offended nature comes from the fact that he feels the trailer represents the same nature of Africa that 1950s movies did. That of a dark, violent, backwards place where the blond female character is kidnapped for some type of sacrifice. Everyone else is offended because it is a white guy shooting black people.
Now my problem covers several different spectrums. First is the issue of Croal’s connection to being offended. This is based on movies from the 1950s. Those of you who don’t know, Croal is to young to have seen these movies in a movie theater. A vast majority aren’t even airing today, other than in snippets of movie history. That means that he had to actively, ACTIVELY, search out these images, to know what to be offended. And why isn’t anyone asking “Croal, why exactly did you draw these comparisons in the first place.” Croal also brings up the issue of “history.” WHile being theoretically correct, that there is a colonial history in Africa, 1)It requires a large leap of faith for a direct, historical comparison to the trailer beyond the basic pathetic “white guy shooting black people” argument. 2)Exactly when will we stop looking at the history? In this respect it brings up a serious issue of “Africa Taboo”, or in other words, that this trailer and game would never be acceptable because of this history. Because while many people say that they feel uncomfortable, none are accusing Capcom of being explicitly racist. It is OUR connections of racism that make it so. And that means in 10 years, or 100 years the game would still be deemed “racist”.
This brings me up to the second issue, and that is burden of offended and racist (Even though Croal never used the word racist, others will so I’m going to cover it.) Racist and racism is a standard that is to easily used, requires little (if any) proof beyond the fact that some one is offended, and those being accused have no way of defending themselves. This brings up a serious issue of it being carried out to far, which many people ignore as a possibility.
This reminds me of the issue of “Pork Chop” the pig themed mascot of a minor league baseball team. Late last year, a Pennsylvania team held a contest to name its pig mascot. The name Pork Chop was chosen. That was, until a person of Puerto Rican heritage complained that the name was racist, since this was apparently a derogatory name for Puerto Ricans at one point. So the name was changed. I find this case very similar to the video of RE5.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
You know what they say about people who don’t pay attention to history.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am
The biggest problem I have with this post and the many others on this topic is that although they continue to bring up the history of race and stereotypes, they continually fail to even consider the history of the Resident Evil series, which has to be considered when making a response. Its hard to take Corvus that seriously when he admittedly remembers playing one game out the 10+ year old series with multiple iterations. This is where Croal fails too. How can he neglect as a gamer, the history of Resident Evil as if it has no bearing on the discussion. It is put into every context other than what it actually is, a sequel to a series with a long history.
In the Resident Evil series you are never surrounded by many allies, because the whole point of the game is feeling alone as you traverse a deserted town/area. This is what makes the game survival horror. The main character in RE5 is Chris Redfield, who has been in the series since the beginning, and is searching for his missing sister Claire, also in the series for a long time. In all the games the main character arrives to a place that has been deserted my normal human life and replaced with the results of biological experiments, zombies, monsters, etc. So why is RE5 any different? It is following the general path of all the other games in the series, only this time its set in Africa (I’ve also heard Haiti). So what is the solution here? Avoid countries with dark skinned people? Make the main character the same race as the zombies he’s killing? Don’t both of these things just avoid the issue rather than attempting to move forward. What other solutions are there?
The point in asking “Exactly when will we stop looking at history?” doesn’t mean that we should forget the race issues in America, it just means when can we move on and try and get past it. When can this game exist and the first thing that comes to mind isn’t race?
April 17th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Wait a minute… what? Take a moment to read my post again, if you would be so kind.
Do you see that I’m not knocking the game or calling it racist? I’m saying that developers and publishers need to be involved in this conversation. That the video games themselves need to be a part of the conversation. I’m saying that although race and racism is a difficult topic, we need to address it. We need to grapple with it. We need to drag it out into the light. Both within the context of the game and within the context of our industry.
In fact, I suggested a solution (or at least hinted at it) in my post. How about intentionally using the imagery of the game series to address the social context of having a white man in Africa shooting natives?
The solution, a huge part of moving on, is discussing it. Moving on and getting past things does not mean neglecting to talk about it.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I’d like to follow up my doppelgänger by saying what I have always said about RE5: it is racist to expressly exclude the idea of black zombies. If the idea of shooting black zombies is offensive, why is the idea of shooting white zombies inoffensive? It must be because we still don’t think of people as people; our notions of race precede our perceptions. I think this, in some respects, is one of the things Corvus is gesturing at here.
Personally, I feel a flagship game set in Africa is a big step forward for the games industry! I for one am cautiously optimistic.
(On reflection, this doesn’t really relate to Mirror Universe Chris’ comment at all, but never mind!)
Toodles!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I get what Corvus is getting at, I just don’t see things that way. I don’t see shooting zombies as offensive to any race.
I am not suggesting that the topic of race should never be discussed, but how about saving it for actual instances of racism rather than perceived instances. We know nothing about the plot of this game other than that it takes place somewhere where the population is largely dark skinned people and that the main character is Chris Redfield, likely still searching for his sister.
What about that screams race issues? I don’t want to ingnore anything I just want to know if there will ever be a time we can look at a game like this and think “Oh cool a new Resident Evil!” rather than it immediately being about race. Can be people of different races ever be in a confrontation without it being based on race?
Why does RE5 need to deviate from the series and offer tons of social commentary? Just to justify black zombies? That’s ridiculous.
To me moving on doesn’t include picking at the small stuff like a zombie game set in Africa.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
When I brought up the issue of history, I did not mean necessarily ignoring it. But applying it to things that it shouldn’t be applied to. Think about it like this, how long did it take the Irish to get over being a part of Britain. What would happen if Greece still had issues with northern Africa? The issue of history isn’t playing out to well between Japan and China either.
It is one thing to remember history, it is quite another to let it rule our emotions and judgments like Croal is doing with RE5. He is applying history where it shouldn’t be applied to because there is no direct connection, only casual hypothesis and opinion. Why should that rule the title of offensive?
April 17th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
No one is saying that having black zombies is taboo and to focus on that is to miss the point of the entire discussion.
Additionally, if RE had been using the zombies as a means of bringing up social themes to start with, this all would be less of an issue. There is a precedent for zombie media doing this, you know. Every single Romero zombie film has not really been about zombies at all.
To say that Croal is off base for comparing the imagery used in the trailer to historic offensive depictions of black people is insane. Again, neither he (nor I) are saying that the game is racist, or the developers are racist. We’re saying that if you want to responsibly engage a community with your media, you ought to take the community’s history into account.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
“just a harmless joke…[some of my] best friends are black.”
That one sentence sums up what I think is the single biggest disconnect in discussions of race. That is, if you think that “racism” is synonymous with “race-hatred”, then that defense (the I-have-a-black-friend defense) probably makes sense to you.
Or, on the other side of the aisle, if “racism” were synonymous with “race-based-stereotyping” or “leaping to conclusions based on race”, then who could claim to be anything but racist, at least some of the time?
The disconnect (as I see it) is that not everybody means the same thing by “racist”, and it seems like too few people even notice that our discussions suffer for it. I thought the Sarah Silverman “chink” joke was pitch-perfect in that sense.