Black Zombies Make Left 4 Dead 2 Racist?
It seems that no game today can make it by without some controversy. This time, we have Left 4 Dead 2 being accused of racism. The post written by Willie Jefferson, asks if racism is “the new norm” in games.
Citing the new Call of Juarez primarily as the reason for the post, he had a lot to say about Left 4 Dead 2:
One of the games that comes to mind is “Left 4 Dead 2.” Though the game isn’t out yet, it’s already causing an uproar. 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. Setting the game in a city that was scene of dead, bloated bodies floating by so soon afterward was a bad call, IMHO. The city has had enough to deal with — Valve, you should have spared them, even if it’s just a video game.
While I can see where people were coming from on Resident Evil 5, I don’t see anything reasonable in this argument. Having a variety of races for zombies makes it racist? Hell, 2 of Left 4 Dead 2′s stars are black. The point made about Katrina doesn’t even fit in with it being “racist”.
How does having black zombies alongside white zombies make it racist? Are people surprised that there’s actually other types of races in all cities, and areas? It’s a bit tiring having the race card pulled on everything, especially in this scenario, as there is little reasoning why this game is racist. Just for having black zombies? I thought we were better than this.
At least this provides something else to talk about related to Left 4 Dead 2. The back and forth banter for Left 4 Dead 2′s existence was getting old.
Via: Destructoid
Again I’ll just focus on an individual part so as to actually be in someway constructive rather than ramble on;
*Ahem*
So soon after Katrina? You complete wanker, Jefferson. It’s been 4 years! The first movie made on the Titanic disaster I think was actually within the very same year of the event. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be a certain grace period, but I think to be able to conceive a child and have it grow up to the point where he’s about to start school is PROBABLY long enough for someone to set a game in a place after a natural disaster, never mind if it has bugger all to do with the event in question.
The Call of Juarez stuff underneath is far funnier though if anyone cares to read past the L4D thing. He complains about how its ridiculous to be fighting for the racist south to stop the north from invading.. which is hilarious because that is EXACTLY what the main characters think in the game, hence why the abandon the army in the first bloody level.
I’ll give him credit for actually writing something well structured, it seems like he does take an interest in games, but that moral compass of his seems to be one of the view I’ve observed myself as pointing inwards.
67.25 of New Orleans population is black… Just sayin’.
Francis probably does hate black people, he hates quite a lot of things for no good reason and will let you know whenever he feels like. They made a damn song about it.
if race has to be “equalized”, it has to be equal across the board. so if we can have an african american president, why not have african american zombies?
next up: streetfighter is racist. because you beat up, you know, indians, russians and stuff.
NoZart has a point actually. Street Fighter with all its sterotypes (YOGA FIRE! YOGA FLAME! Guile being so FUCK YEAH AMERICA he has the flag tatooed on his arm and he fights in a military airfield, Fei Long being Bruce Lee and Dee Jay being a wonderful amalgamation of any african profile) has to be more racist than L4D.
Causing an uproar? Since when?
And aren’t at least two of the new L4D survivors, plus Louis from the first game black? It’s not recist, I have black comrades.
I’ll say what some jolly-stomached commenter on Destructiod said.
“Jefferson was also quoted as saying ‘Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!”
Yup. Dude has no problem playing as an Eastern European, blowing up Nazis, blowing up the Japanese, but once video games infringe on his life story, WATCH THE FUCK OUT.
@Xander: Guile has 2 American flags tattooed on both his shoulders. Why? Because he’s so badass he needs to flags to express just how American he is.
Where are the Asians? (all of them!?) Where are the Brits, the Aussies, the French, the Germans, the Irish, the Canadian, the Mexicans, the Dutch, the Danish, the Norwegian, the Swedish, the Finnish, the Icelandic, the Greenlanders, the Russians, the Italians or the Spanish? IMO, they should have one person or more for each nationality of the world, otherwise it’s racist.
@Z. Goast:
That goes for all games.
You have to remember that for many people who argue without thinking first, the term “racist” has basically lost all meaning.
Racism is a form of DISCRIMINATION based on race. Since there is a HUGE mix and HUGE variety of physical appearances of zombies in this game, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR that no one type of appearance or race was DISCRIMINATED against. In fact, you could say the game is full of DIVERSITY DIVERSITY DIVERSITY YAY DIVERSITY! I’m sure the author LOVES the word DIVERSITY!
You know what the author wants? White zombies only- the author wants the game to like first one, where you kill white zombies only. It’s quite clear that the author is projecting his anti-white racism into his completely baseless accusations against the game. I dare say, the author is 100% racist and a bigot. Time for him to attend sensitivity training classes!
By this idiot’s logic, Left 4 dead 1 is racist because the zombies are all white. But nobody yells out racism there, eh? Every time a blithering moron like this opens his mouth, the term racist loses yet more importance and does not help the people who are actually affecte by it.
Yes. he’s saying that, and he’s right. What’s more racist? that ALL the zombies are white, or that they’re diversified? Neither game is racist and the complaints made by this Willie guy are completely retarded, but if either game had to be racist, clearly the first one would be the racist one.
I didn’t see any asians in that trailer however, do I feel offended because i’m asian? Of course not.. It just so happened that no asian people got turned into zombies that day. seriously, who cares? it makes absolutely no difference wether all the races were there or not.
it’s just like resident evil thing. I never saw a white man killing black people. I saw a dude killing zombies.
Also, it feels today like black people can make outrageous comments and nobody can say a thing about it, because if they do, then they are racists.
Honestly… do people really think something like blackcareers.com is ok? Can you imagine how much of an uproar there would be if someone made a website called whitecareers.com? Going to such a website is admitting that you’re different and require special treatment because of your race.
It seems like anyone and everyone can be racist towards white people, and any attempt to defend themselves immediately gets them labeled as a racist.