Of course it is racist

it looks (from the OP) even more racist than LOTR (where orc are not depicted as real human but mostly monster)
it is even more racist than RE5 (that is a far more complicated and discutable case, and that is not racist for me)

indeed, A LOT (if not all) of the european/occidental referrences are racist

japanese have a tendency to create "occidental" character. But they also follow some of the occidental behaviour and they consider black/arab as low developped human with agressive behaviour

That is what happen after 500 years of slavery and 150 years racist propaganda ...
just take a look at what is considered as pretty or ugly in your face
just give a look at "300"

a game only means what you take from it.

the only people who find racist undertones in games are the ones who look for it.

And the difference between brown and black is what adsactly?

well think about it.. could you call a Moroccan "black"?

its not just about the colour of the skin, its about the origins of their peoples and their genetic history.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define%3Aarab&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

^definition of arabic people.

and just for info, the following words are associated with the colour black. most of them are pretty obvious, no? and how many of them can we apply to ganondorf (and his beautiful horse)  XD

darkness, secrecy, and mystery; silence and concealment; death (including execution) and bereavement; (with orange) Halloween; end, chaos, and lack; evil, bad luck, and crime; conversely, elegance, anarchy, Rebellion, Non-Conformity, Individuality

arguing about colour is stupid, particularly in games.

and i still maintain that he was green anyway XD

All these years I have never once thought Ganondorf to be black, or arab, he is his own thing, very unique. The gerudo race however (as seen in OoT and MM) are more middle eastern.

Blah... I dont think anyone is being racist in zelda.. not unless u looking for that angle in particular. If you think zelda is racist.. what bout street fighter which stereotypes every race possible: the japanese karate guy/sumo guy, the indian yoga guy and the HK bruce lee lookalike..

None of these games are racist. They just play off of stereotypes. Things that everybody knows and understands. It means nothing.

Also:


it's only racist if it's black, a statement within itself is racist.

Errr yes?

Moving away slightly from Zelda I think people get way to worked up about this. I mean typically good is describes as "light" and bad is described as "dark" but since when did that have anything to do with skin colour? If anything I'd guess it's more to do with darkness being a primitive fear that is alleviated by light. Is it so wrong that dark is used to make a simple connection with bad...

Well the article was clearly a joke, but I think your statement's a cop out. Can't you apply that statement to anything? In fact, I remember during the Obama campaign, there were people who had clearly racist posters and shrugged their shoulders when confronted, saying "I dunno".