Racial Sensitivity

Racism is a societal norm. It has been part of human social interaction since, ever-existent amongst our father’s father’s fathers. The goal of each race so it seems, as proven through our morbid and sadistic history as a species, is to out do the other, survival of the fittest, to prove who’s the powerful, the ruling, the chosen race. Even the most famous book in history, respected and viewed as the most sacred literary masterpiece by more than a billion people, The Bible -- dwells in this racial discriminatory act, it openly and aggressively promotes the idea of a chosen, preferred race - The Israelites.

Since it’s so obviously apparent that the stigma of racism is consistently fresh in the minds of the world’s populace why are there such extreme backlashes if a certain race becomes a subject of derogatory remarks, as if experts failed to predict on how sensitive human emotions have turned out the past couple of centuries.


For the past few weeks, strong opinions and harsh words have been given to Resident Evil 5’s gameplay footage. Capcom recently released an updated gameplay footage of their upcoming survival horror blockbuster franchise and it drew up tons of reactions online and groups concerned about the content. The protagonist, Chris Redfield is seen in the video shooting and kicking the day lights out of Africans = Black.

Should we be bothered by this? Nobody complained when hispanics were the subject of killing in Resident Evil 4, why then such a reaction from the online community? Since its merely a light form of racism, its ever-existent, why bother, its just a videogame, so what?

We as human beings have evolved through time. True, corruption is widespread in every form of government, in some corner of the world, savage and barbaric acts are still rampant. What I’d like to focus on, are the developed, civilized societies that have been formed for the past century or so amongst the majority of the world’s nations. Equality and freedom from oppression have been set in motion -- we are all trying to attain that, through our workplace, home, and the like.

It is the responsibility of this ‘evolved’ society to safeguard the maturity it has reached. A lot of people were offended by this game’s setting - due to blacks being synonymous to victims of slavery and hurtful racism from Americans and Europeans - to see a white male having random trigger happy moments and indulging himself in mass executions of native Africans, it hurls back the painful memories of racism to those affected.

Could it be we humans are internally sensitive, but when external sensitivity is due, we are incapable to offer such sensitivity for which we so desire?

Racism is here to say. But to let it roam freely through mass media and various forms of entertainment -- this must be abated.