For anyone that doesn’t listen to the Orange show or isn’t already following me on twitter, then first of all, what the hell is wrong with you? (actually don’t answer that) But you may not have heard the comment I made to Lono concerning Resident Evil 5 and the topic of racism. For those that didn’t hear from the Podcast or aren’t digitally stalking me, here is my actual tweet;
“RE5 isn’t even the most racist game that Capcom have made this month. SFIV- Yoga Flame? That doesn’t even make sense”
See if we can make a bit for sense of it after the jump…
For those that don’t know me, let me explain something about myself – I’m color blind. Before people start saying stuff about ‘explaining a lot about my art style’, I don’t mean the actual ability to see colors. I mean that when it comes to people I don’t (or rather am completely unable) to make any judgement or assumptions about anyone based on their skin color or ethnic origin.
If I do have a failing it is that when I see people, I’m far more likely to make a snap decision based on someone’s attitude and how they present themselves to the world. Even that can be very short sighted but tends to be basic human nature. I can not explain or understand how someone can make sweeping (and usually amazingly dumb) assumptions based on their ethnic background. I care no more about the color of your skin, than I care about that of your hair.
My comment attracted some debate on my twitter feed, and perhaps rightly so, because despite the advantages of twitter as a social networking tool, it is disadvantaged in it only leaves you so much room to flesh out a thought and, as with many forms of quick text based communications, it is often difficult to express tone.
I was, hopefully obviously, being a bit comical and flippant when I made my comment, but it hides a more serious topic. The point I made is that Dhalsim is a cliched stereotype, with moves like the Yoga flame not making any sense – because it doesn’t! How does doing yoga mean that you can breathe fire? Simple answer – it doesn’t! Not to mention the racial stereotype of an Indian man doing Yoga and having stretchy limbs.
The argument was put to me that all the other characters in Street Fighter are just as racist – E Honda being a Sumo wrestler and Ken being blond-haired & blue eyed. My counter argument was simple – so you agree with me then that Street Fighter IV is more racist than Resident Evil 5? The fact of the matter is, *it is* and it’s strange that people are paying more attention to having black people in game set in Africa, than having racist stereotypes beating each other up.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t think that SFIV is truly a racist game.
I wouldn’t want to belittle the feelings of people that felt the same way as N’Gai Croal, but I just can’t get my head round it. What exactly is the problem with having black zombies in a game in Africa? As someone already pointed out no one was complaining about white, Spanish people being singled out in RE4.
The other point that makes me scratch my head, is the way society as a whole reacts to stuff like this. It seems to me that regardless of anyone’s opinion, no one really came out and contradicted what Mr. Croal had to say on the matter. I’m not saying that he was right or wrong but someone out there had to disagree with him and no one, at least publicly and vocally enough to get much attention, did so. I hate the thought going through my head but I have to wonder if the situation would be different if it wasn’t for the color of the skin of the man complaining. If that’s the case, it may be a matter of positively discriminating against him, which still has the word discrimination in it and sits more uneasily with me, and is possibly more racist, than anything I saw from the supposed racism of Resident Evil 5.
The facts boil down to this, I do believe that every person and culture in the world has the right to be respected but if you start to over analyze how every little thing could offend someone, then you’re headed down a slippery slope. If you search hard enough you can find someone that is offended by anything. If a person of an ethnic minority says that they are ‘offended by the very existence of white people’, would all white people just happily fade out of existence? That is taking it to the extreme but it does seem that people these days are afraid to speak out for fear of being tarnished with the ‘they-are-a-racist’ brush.
Like racism itself, to me that just seems cowardly and dumb.
If you can’t have a black zombie in a horror game set in Africa but you can have a fat Sumo repeatedly sitting on the head of an stretchy anorexic firebreathing Indian, until he is knocked out, then what message are we spreading to society?
That racism is okay, as long as it’s funny?
Maybe this is more serious than I thought.
The message I get is that there is a group that is specifically NOT ok to be racist about. Frankly, I think it’s BS, as that attitude itself breeds the very thing they think they are preventing.
Racism is a figment of anyones imagination, if you dont acknowledge it then it dont exist …. problem is as the mutt of mighty was touching on is that everyones gone amd …. a game based in africa will have africans…. just as a game based on mars will have aliens …. its the right thing …. anyone who thought that resident evil was racist probably says things like…’those poor blacks…..’ when watching a infomercial on poverty in africa ….. truth is, most of us have predudice, i dont like overweight people cause i think that they are so greedy to eat till they cant eat no more ….. problem is that media has a responsibility to be blind to racism and just do the right thing, Street Fighter is lame for having Dhalsim speaking american, what’s wrong with a native language and subtitles (unless streetfighter gamers cant read) …… peace out, live long and prosper !
Racism in video games?
That’s a big NOTHING!
Haha
The Scrambled Pixel team managed to find many racial connotations in the board game Guess Who…
But Street Fighter being racist? :/
I see where Mighty Mutt is going with the SFIV train of thought, but I think people ignore the stereotypes because it’s always been so cartoon-y anyway that it comes across as a caricature, which is generally overstated.
I think it’s good to celebrate our cultural differences while maintaining a sense of equality. I knew one lady in California that wouldn’t let her kids identify people by race, which was a good theory but I’m going to teach my kids to appreciate other cultures rather than ignore them.
ok, i had enough of this BS!
not you MightyMutt, but the whole racism issue.
for gods sake people, and i mean normal people not attention whores, did you really though about RE or SF in this racism prospective before you heard some stupid attention whores saying that it is racist??
i dont think so, we play to play, while attention whores play to poke holes and get there fix by pointing a bad thing in a good game just to look “deep”.
and the fire is always on big names and good games. RE and SF are 2 of the biggest names in the video games industry.
i didnt hear any one saying 50 Cent game is racist!! but who would care about a game like this when you have two of Capcoms superstars on the market.
please SGC, think for your self, dont go with the flow of some “success haters” who get their adrenalin rush by ruining a good game
(side rant: the same stupidity apply on RE DLC!)
I feel very strongly about this topic because the whole issue of racism is brought up far to often on things that are either clearly not racist (to any sane person) or were just obviously not meant to be racist in the 1st place. It is brought up by people just trying to cause trouble, I don’t know why they want to cause trouble but I can’t help but think it often is born from their own racism. Don’t get me wrong I despise racism, it’s just not logical to descriminate against people over race, but unfortunatley it does exist. However, today we live in such a ‘politically correct’ (as they call it) society that when it is brought up over issues like the Capcom ones, people don’t feel that they can dispel these idiotic notions, for fear of (as MightyMutt said) being branded a racist themselves. The way the media are these days all (so called) minorities ie. anyone apart from the ‘white male’ can say almost whatever they like about race and get away with it because we are now so aware of the ‘traditional’ white male’s prejudices, and I’m not just saying this because I am a white male, I’m just trying to say it how it is. I’m also not trying to generalize that all people of different races to my own take advantage of this situation, as I said before it is the pursuit of the few trouble makers (not the many). But these actions, as I think most of us know, build barriers between races, not tear them down. We all just need to be less easily offended and be more sensible in our judgement. We need to accept what differences we do have and live with them.
As for Street Fighter 4, I would liken it’s characters to a world fair, where every country has it’s own stall. Each stall would be emblazoned with internationally recognisable symbols of their country’s culture. However just because it is on their stall doesn’t mean all Irish wear green Leprechaun top hats with four leaf clovers, nor are all Chinese, martial artists. But I consider (as I hope you do, otherwise my argument is pointless) this practise acceptable since, as long as it doesn’t involve negative stereotypes, like overweight Americans or bad toothed English, it is just a snapshot of that country and some of the unique or popular pastimes or traditions of their cultures. Each stall is a caricature of it’s country, just as I see each SF4 Character as a caricature of theirs
Wow, if you’ve read all that, well done, I do tend to rant.
Im sorry guys put i think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion i mean i know loads of black guys and i asked them about it and they were completely cool with it and couldnt understand it and i came to the conlusion that NOBODY is complaining about this its just us discussing it i dont know about you put i’am yet to hear somebody say they actully find the game rascist ?