Half-Masked

You know? It’s nice to read an article about black characters in video games by a black video game fan, that doesn’t complain that the chick in Resident Evil 5 “isn’t black enough”.

Which, really, is one of the stupidest complaints I’ve ever heard, and this isn’t just limited to video games. “Isn’t black enough“? That depends greatly on what each of our definitions of “black” is. What would be “black enough”? This is a complaint I’ve actually heard. Does it matter if they’re Haitian? What if they’re from India? Or the Dominican Republic? Is being educated, well-spoken or responsible compared to a racist stereotype not black enough? Is Cole Train in Gears of War “black enough”? Does a black character in a video game have to speak only in ebonics to be black? Is it merely a matter of appearances? Like, is there a specific point, a divider line you could say, at which someone with strong African heritage is somehow not black, because their skin isn’t dark enough? If you think so, here’s an article about Victor Varnado.

I agree with pretty much everything Darius White had to say, including his sentiment that Sazh Katzroy in FFXIII has the potential to be either really awful, or so awful that he pulls a Shatner, comes right back around and becomes awesome. It could go either way at this point. I hear he’s supposed to be a pretty decent, if not virtuous guy, so one could make the assumption that the script won’t call for him to be a Wacky Black Guy. The ball is now in the court of whoever provides his voice.

NOTE: While I’m here, I might as well tackle a not-so-unrelated subject. I went to my friend’s house the other day, and he has the Resident Evil 5 demo. When prompted to decide who to play as, Chris Redfield or Sheva Alomar, I went with Sheva. Chris is Chris alright, he’s a staple face of the series, but there’s something I like about Sheva. I certainly wouldn’t say she’s “not black enough”, just because the zombies have a darker skin tone than her.

That’s another thing, all of this controversy about RE 5 being a game where you shoot black zombies. There are several things wrong with the line of thinking that this game is “racist” because of that:

1. They’re polygons. They’re wireframes. They’re non-real computer animations, for crying out loud.
2. THEY’RE ZOMBIES. They’re not black people. They’re not African. They were in context of the story at some point, yes. But they’re not “black” anymore. Now they are fucking zombies. Zombification knows no prejudices. It doesn’t matter if before you were infected you were male, female, white, black, christian, jew, muslim, scientologist, none of that matters. You’re a fucking Zombie now. And fucking Zombies will fucking EAT YOU. Unless you kill them to (re?)death. They instigate the violence and cannot be reasoned with. Self-defence against a mindless engine of cranial violence is not “racist”. If the fucking Zombies decide to attack you with pieces of chicken, or all of them talk like Chris Tucker, then yeah, that’d be a little insensitive. Trying to make the case that this game is racist because you kill many “black people” would only be true if those black people were innocent civilians minding their own business and doing absolutely nothing to warrant shooting them in the head. These are not “innocent civilians”. These are murder-machines(AKA: fucking Zombies). It would, however, be racist to have to shoot Sheva, and only then if the reasoning behind that would be solely because of her ethnicity.
3. THE GAME TAKES PLACE IN AFRICA! You know, where the whole mythology of the fucking Zombie was born? Yeah, not everyone from Africa is black, but what do you expect? RUSSIANS?! If this game took place in Switzerland or Alabama and the focus was on shooting black zombies, then there’d be reason for outrage. But we’re talking about a continent bursting at the seams with black people. This may surprise those of you hungry for something to make into a civil-rights movement, but if a zombie outbreak ever does occur in an area heavily populated by people with dark skin, then you’re going to see a lot of zombies with dark skin. This is not the result of racism or cultural ignorance on the part of Capcom. That is what would happen, unless the catalyst were some strain of virus that only turns white people into fucking Zombies. If you become a fucking Zombie, you’re fair game. No one is going to give you a break if you were once black or asian or a Native American. And they shouldn’t feel bad about it. Nor should we campaign for the plight of imaginary monsters hell-bent on devouring living flesh just because they have darker skin than most GREEN OR GRAY FUCKING ZOMBIES.

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~A.H.