Jumping on the Bandwagon
Over used stock photo 71.
Even Obama isn't safe from Japanese 'comedy'.
Capcom isn’t ignorant. It makes entertainment media for the world market and is aware of the issues involved; but maybe not fully. No matter how much you educate yourself on the subtleties of issues as historical and as deeply felt as race you can never truly appreciate it without living it. Resident Evil 5′s imagery does contain negative or offensive implications to some, but I suspect all of the scenes people are reacting to are iconic images drawn from other media (primarily cinema). The white muscle bound hero, the zombies in African tribal ware, the rioting mob even the (incredibly out of place) victimisation of a white blonde woman are all Hollywood tropes. While any individual element could be dismissed or explained the cumulative effect of all of them viewed concurrently become difficult to ignore. Capcom’s awareness drove them to create their paper thin narrative explanations for their design choices, but these became thinner with each passing digression.
Let’s face it this isn’t the first time Capcom has made use of racial iconography.
Tags: Capcom, Japan, Racism, Resident Evil 5
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It should also be said that the Japanese routinely mock themselves using crude makeup and costumes. Whenever someone makes light of Sanma-san they put in buck teeth, for example. However, the one time I saw Japanese people confronted with some of the racist “Japanese” characters from older Hollywood films (aka Marlon Brando as an Okinawan translator), they were not amused in the slightest.
I don’t know how many years it will take for the offensive nature of blackface (and the like) to break through around here, but it’s slowly coming. The Obama impersonator you show used to use makeup for his act, but now he’s just tanned. I’d like to think that was a conscious choice.
Did any Spanish people complain about RE4?
No.
Anyone here remember the episode of South Park with the flag and Chef going apeshit over it? This is exactly the same as that.
This is a bunch of black people saying “this is a white guy shooting lots of black men, it’s just plain wrong”, while completely (and conveniently) forgetting two large points.
1. Its set in fucking Africa. There’s a LOT of black people in Africa.
2. Does skin colour really matter when an evil multinational corporation infect an entire continent with a mutating virus that turns honest everyday citizens into mindless, brain-devouring mutants? “Oh shit, I best let myself be killed and allow the large and inherently evil Umbrella Corporation to get away with mass murder on a previously unseen scale, cos I’ll get into a lot of trouble if I shoot this black guy whos trying to EAT MY FUCKING FACE OFF”.
It only becomes a race issue when people consider the colour of someones skin more important than the actual events that are occurring.
Couldn’t agree more Blokeh. In fact I toyed with using that example. In the end I didn’t want to make a reference readers may not get, and didn’t want to explain it!
In the same vein though while talking about race I am reminded on the ‘With Apologies to Jesse Jackson’ episode of South Park when Stan has the realisation and tell Token, that ‘I don’t get it!’ I’ll never get what if feels like to be a minority growing up in a country where negative stereotypes exists about me. I suspect it would make me more sensitive to things that had been used to personally attack me through out my childhood.
Feit, I know that Japanese are equally self deprecating, but what disturbs me is that comedians who mock foreign countries tend to only use the appearance and garbled words for a laugh. The humor gets no more sophisticated that. At least when mocking themselves the do tend to add a little more satire (or at least they play more to the stereotype verbally).
Yeah what Blokeh said.
I cannot condemn/defend the game since I have not played it, but I think the “it was OK in Spain” argument doesn’t work. True, the game’s setting should determine the racial makeup of the zombie “peasants,” but that doesn’t mean that images of those people being gunned down won’t alarm some. The best example I heard (forget where) was a theoretical Resident Evil game with a Japanese protagonist killing infected Chinese zombies. Wouldn’t that have uncomfortable historical parallels that would give people pause?
Context is everything. I don’t think RE5 can be considered “racist” but from what I’ve heard/seen (all second hand mind you) it certainly pushes a few buttons that could have been left unpushed with some more forethought.
The Spain thing is valid; but it does have less impact to those watching it. Like you say the setting (and imagery) just pushes the buttons that much more effectively not the underlying message or logic.
What if RE4 had been in Mexico? Same reaction?
Always remember though this wasn’t white people making white people kill black people. It was Japanese people making a white guy kill black people. It does make a difference, but maybe not to everyone watching.
Out of everything said this one sentence prevails…
quote from Blokeh
“It only becomes a race issue when people consider the colour of someones skin more important than the actual events that are occurring.”