Sorry about getting to this topic late, but I had a nice response all thought up and was ready to type it out but then someone at work said pretty much exactly what I wanted to say but 10 times better so here we go...
Eeh … I kinda disagree.
I don’t think he makes a strong argument. He talks a lot about the ‘imagery’ that is presented, but he doesn’t give any real examples other than they’re black. What I mean is this. If you engage in any literary criticism, invoking imagery means a very specific thing: presenting an idea or concept that provokes a very specific reference to something or feeling. For instance a snake in the grass or something that echoes an overriding theme such as ocean waves representing feelings of being washed away. It seems to me that you can sum up his argument with “black people have history, and seeing black people invokes imagery of that history,” but doesn’t really give any concrete examples other than. He sets up his argument with “There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery”, but only backed up that argument with the ‘feeling’ that when entering the town before they appear zombified, “they’re all dangerous; they all need to be killed … men, women and children. They all have to be killed,” but I really think that falls short as an imagery / history argument. Now if there are burning crosses in the level, etc … then absolutely I’d agree that’s a real poor decision. But it seems like he’s basically reinforcing what he denies in the article, which is that you simply can’t have a white guy shoot only black people in a video game.
I think all his points and concerns about needing to be aware of the implications of this are valid. I would back that 100%, but not on the basis of some backwards argument about history and imagery. I want him to be honest and just say … a white guy shooting up a village of black folks is bad, because we’re a really sensitive society about that, instead of trying to justify the argument with anything else. It seems like it’s reaching for justification outside of that, and I don’t think it holds up.
To add a bit of sarcasm to it …It’s ok, see … Chris Redfield is muslim … they’ve been slaughtering black people for centuries and no one seems to have a problem with it.
And to be honest, I’m a bit offended at the very first statement “Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game.” As if white people don’t care about black people and are incapable of perceiving or feeling anything regarding racial sensitivity.
