Yes if you hadn’t noticed yet the racism claim against Resident Evil 5 is my latest obsession which also explains the lack of rants against installs recently so enjoy it while it lasts.
The latest entity to speak up about the racism claims in Resident Evil 5 would be the BBFC or for those of us who don’t live in the UK that would be the British Board of Film Classification and the group responsible for putting those age restriction labels on all movies and games sold in the UK.
When speaking to MCVUK a spokesperson for the board had the following to say when quizzed about the now infamous balcony seen where a group of black males is dragging away a caucasian female
“In the version of the scene submitted to the BBFC there is only one man pulling the blonde woman in from the balcony, and I can’t say the skimpiness of her dress impressed itself on me,”
He then goes on to state
“As the whole game is set in Africa it is hardly surprising that some of the characters are black, just like the fact that some of the characters in an earlier version were Spanish as the game was set in Spain.”
“We do take racism very seriously, but in this case there is no issue around racism”
So there we have it, according to the BBFC there is no issue around racism in Resident Evil 5 and that is the first statement I have seen from a body which has no vested interest in this title either way.
We could always stir the pot by pointing out that a comment about racism from the country that invented colonialism isn’t going to hold much water with the people claiming racism, Â but we wouldn’t do that…Â
Source: MCVUK
Last Updated: March 3, 2009
SlippyMadFrog
March 3, 2009 at 13:07
Agreed. Yay! :silly:
PillsburyDeeBoy
March 3, 2009 at 13:31
Again, we wait to see. The question really is is the BBFC sensitive to the historical context wherein these claims of racism are coming from?
I think I need to just play it for myself and form an opinion. Since I’m not gonna be buying it, care to send me a white label reviewer copy Lazy – which I will promptly return after completion – in exchange for an op-ed on this topic 😉 ?
SlippyMadFrog
March 3, 2009 at 13:59
If you where the game designer of RE5, how would you go about basing the game in africa while avoiding racist accusations? Is it possible?
janrik
March 3, 2009 at 14:00
The British did not invent colonies…
The first Africans to leave Africa for Europe did that.
LazySAGamer
March 3, 2009 at 14:45
There is a difference between colonies and Colonialism..
And I think we can all agree that when people in Africa talk about colonialism they are referring to the colonisation of African countries by European settlers.
V@mp
March 3, 2009 at 15:41
Wow.So many “ism”s floating around.
Racism…colonialism…meh…Absurdism!
Seeing then that it’s widely speculated
that Africa is the cradle of life,would that then make
all Africans the original colonialists?
janrik
March 4, 2009 at 08:05
So the people that left and then came back with newer and better tech is a bad thing?
I saw a nice little blog the other day: “stop moaning about slavery, etc. You do not see the Jews suing the Egyptians over slavery”…
I really really really think people need to get over themselves and move on.
Yes it was all terrible, but if you cannot let it go, how can you expect other people to let it go?
Stronger civs have always oppressed ‘weaker’ peoples.
It is part of natural selection. Time to move up or shut up.
janrik
March 4, 2009 at 08:34
Kinda the point I was trying to make…
Way back we are all Africans, (except for the chinese, they say they are from the Moon spaceship).
LazySAGamer
March 4, 2009 at 08:48
I can see people taking offense to that last statement…
And I don’t see the Israeli’s letting go of the holocaust yet which happened long before apartheid in SA was stopped…
Maybe in 2000 years colonialism won’t be an issue anymore but expecting people to forgive and forget in their own lifetime is asking a bit much in my opinion…
janrik
March 4, 2009 at 10:18
If we do not get this out of the ‘human’ system in our gen, then the next gen of people will still have it…
Not sure how people can take offense…?
Play Age of Empires or Civ and you can clearly see that the people with the most tech or culture or economy wins.
Every time.
janrik
March 4, 2009 at 10:41
I’m sure if black people where killing white zombies it would not be racist at all?
V@mp
March 4, 2009 at 11:57
But if you want to equate it to colonialism
then surely there should be an uproar about
just about ANY RTS game, not so?
V@mp
March 4, 2009 at 12:01
Just about any RTS for that matter.
They are all built around conquering
land.
janrik
March 4, 2009 at 13:39
We should mail Jack T and tell him that my white American civ in Civ rev just destroyed the black Zulu kingdom!
And I had a treaty with the British to attack the Chinese!
I must be racist!Sid Meier must be a racist also then! :blink:
the horror, the horror.
Kale
March 4, 2009 at 15:05
Speak for yourself…
WitWolfyZA
March 4, 2009 at 15:42
huh? spaceships hey…. no one they all look alike . was some kind of cloning mothership of some sort