{"id":4132,"date":"2009-07-16T14:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T22:00:00","slug":"left-4-dead-2-called-racist-features-several-black-zombies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/4132-left-4-dead-2-called-racist-features-several-black-zombies","title":{"rendered":"Left 4 Dead 2 called racist, features \u201cseveral\u201d black zombies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a blog post<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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’<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“I am disturbed by the growing trend of racist undertones that are cropping up in video games.<\/p>\n

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… <\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

As a minority, had the South won, I wouldn’t be in this position I am today…”<\/em> wrote Jefferson.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

Sub-text: New Orleans is predominantly inhabited by African American people.<\/em><\/p>\n

1.    Left 4 Dead 2 has players killing zombies in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

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

Therefore, the game is racist.<\/p>\n

It’s actually worse than the worst argument for creationism that I have ever come across (that’s bad).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

racism<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Now, go and read your blog again.<\/p>\n

Discuss Left 4 Dead 2 racism accusation<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another ignorant, knee-jerk reactionary complains about something he knows little about <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37700,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions\/37700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}