The other day N'Gai Croal brought up an issue with Resident Evil 5 that's been done to death already. But, I assume he has nothing to write about so he has to give his opinion on a dead issue. You can read the article here.
I've generally enjoyed N'Gai's articles in Edge magazine. But the guy isn't perfect. This is someone who, as his bio put it “covered everything from the eye-popping special effects in "The Matrix" to the success of rock n' rap performers like Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock." so he does write a load of shit. The Matrix wasn't that revolutionary. Certainly not when it's using special effects found in a GAP advert before the movie's launch.
So it's established that N'Gai does talk shit sometimes and he has done so recently on MT Multiplayer.
He says:
"I looked at the "Resident Evil 5? trailer and I was like, "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game."
Well, obviously with it being a Japanese gaming and Japan being one of the most homogeneous societies.
He continues:
"There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery. What was not funny, but sort of interesting, was that there were so many gamers who could not at all see it. Like literally couldn’t see it. So how could you have a conversation with people who don’t understand what you’re talking about and think that you’re sort of seeing race where nothing exists? "
Croal doesn't care about white people.
I enjoyed the fact he didn't give any examples. Most likely because it's a non-issue and if he listed his racist points he'd look like a tit. Most gamers don't see any racism because it does no exist and this isn't 1950 anymore. Racism isn't nearly the issue it used to be. In fact people are so PC these days that Americans are so confused about what to call black people and end up calling all black people African-Americans and, in turn, making themselves look thick.
Finally:
"It’s not even like one cute African — or Haitian or Caribbean — child could be saved. They’re all dangerous men, women and children. They all have to be killed. And given the history, given the not so distant post-colonial history, you would say to yourself, why would you uncritically put up those images? It’s not as simple as saying, "Oh, they shot Spanish zombies in ‘Resident Evil 4,’ and now ‘black zombies and that’s why people are getting upset." The imagery is not the same. It doesn’t carry the same history, it doesn’t carry the same weight. I don’t know how to explain it more clearly than that. "
For starters how can he say this when we know virtually nothing about the game. Most of the game could be spent with a "cute African" that acts like Resident Evil 4's Ashley. Instead N'Gai chooses to be alarmist and spout crap.
The whole post-colonial angle stinks of racism itself. Why? Chris Redfield isn't English, Dutch or German. He is American. N'Gai is basically implying that all white people are guilty and thus should feel bad about colonialism. Hey let's not fight the big issues like the fact that Africans are still enslaved in this day and age (enslaved by their fellow Africans too) and why he's crying about how rough the black man has had it, why doesn't he thank god his people weren't nearly wiped off the face of the earth like the Native American. Ironically if it was a game based in Africa and featured only white people he would have probably moaned about that as well.
The Spaniards had Colonies as well and maybe that's why he doesn't care for them. But the fact is that all his complaints can be applied to Resident Evil 4. There are no cute Spaniards, they're all moody shits looking to kill you and the game paints a very bad picture of Spain. On top of that, their words aren't even spoken by real Spanish people. Like virtually all "Spanish" in games, it's done by dirt cheap Mexican labour.
How does he think that makes Spanish people feel? You're portrayed badly and then "your people" don't even speak your language. My guess is N'Gai is a stereotypical ignorant American and probably doesn't realise that most cultures outside of American get crapped on. I'm sure he doesn't care either. He's American so in his head he probably doesn't want his game characters speaking anything other than American English.
It's disturbing that N'Gai has no problem killing thousands, if not millions of white people in games. He has no problem with colonialism when it involves the British killing American revolutionaries or when, like in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Day of Defeat, you can play as a Nazi and kill Americans and...well only Americans because the efforts of the French, British, Polish, etc have been wiped off the history books according to gaming. He has no problem with the fact the only time a German is in a video game he is the most evil bad guy and most likely a Nazi.
None of this matters to him and it would be nice if the media would point this out and stop giving PC cry babies like himself a platform to spew forth their ignorant opinion without questioning it. Because when you gather all the facts up it looks more like N'Gai is a racist more than Capcom is. Clearly he is only interested in protecting his own race. There was another man like that and his name was Hitler.
