In a blog post for the Houston Chronicle entitled “Racism in video games: The new norm?”, blogger Willie Jefferson expresses his concern with the gaming industry, stating that games such as Left for Dead 2, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Resident Evil V are perpetuating racism.

I will not even discuss the Resident Evil soap-opera, as I believe my colleague Dan Parmenter summed it up quite nicely in his opinion piece entitled ‘Black, White and seeing Red All over’.

However, the argument which Jefferson uses to state his case truly does represent a new low in the ever growing pit of illogical, ignorant and sensationalist writing that passes for journalism.

“I am disturbed by the growing trend of racist undertones that are cropping up in video games.

One of the games that comes to mind is “Left 4 Dead 2.” …Set in New Orleans, players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies – with several of them who appear to be African-Americans. When I saw the first trailer for the game, all I could think about was Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath…

The game that really inspired this blog entry was Ubisoft’s “Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.” The game starts out with players assuming the role of Ray, a Confederate officer… the Confederacy, as far as I am concerned, wanted to keep their cheap slave labor and the like. I can not stand the Confederate flag… To me, the flag represents hate — and offends me and many others to no end. [It] made me wonder how much research Ubisoft did for this game…

As a minority, had the South won, I wouldn’t be in this position I am today…” wrote Jefferson.

Firstly, his argument that Left 4 Dead is racist is so badly communicated that calling it an ‘argument’ feels like a genuine stretch. However, I believe it goes something like this:

Sub-text: New Orleans is predominantly inhabited by African American people.

1.    Left 4 Dead 2 has players killing zombies in New Orleans.

2.    Many (actually, several according to Jefferson but I’ll give him this one) of those zombies were once black people.

Therefore, the game is racist.

It’s actually worse than the worst argument for creationism that I have ever come across (that’s bad).

I would provide a simple rebuttal, but arguing against people this ignorant makes my head hurt. Instead I will point out how his claim expresses an inherently racist viewpoint in itself.

By arguing that the depiction of the killing of a “black zombie” in a video game is racist toward black people, by his own standards, Jefferson must bite the bullet and accept that  killing a member (in zombie form or otherwise) of any race in a video game is equally racist towards the race in question. This is of course assuming Jefferson believes in equality.

It would seem that Jefferson would prefer it if there were only other race zombies being killed in Left 4 Dead 2. If so, then once again by his own standards Jefferson is reflecting a blatantly racist attitude towards Chinese, Mexicans, Indians, whites and all other races that happen to not be black.

This brings me to Jefferson’s complaint that Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood perpetuates racism by apparently glorifying a confederate officer.

Once again Jefferson exposes his own inherently bigoted view point by arguing that a member of a certain organization must be depicted in a manner which accords with a widespread generalization pertaining to said organization. I.e. All confederate soldiers are racist, and therefore it is offensive to portray them in any other way.

I close with an excerpt from the Oxford dictionary which gives a thorough definition of the word ‘racism’ in the vague and distance hope that Mr. Jefferson will stumble upon this article.

If you are reading this Mr. Jefferson, and if every word I have written has escaped you, may you at least internalize the basic meaning of the word that you love to throw around so ignorantly.

racism

  • noun 1 the belief that there are characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to each race. 2 discrimination against or antagonism towards other races.

Now, go and read your blog again.

Discuss Left 4 Dead 2 racism accusation in the forums