It wouldn't surprise me if Capcom really is a racist company.  Remember Dead Rising?  Otis, the most annoying character in that game (and any other game I've played), is Black.  Clearly this is a sign of Capcom's moral decay.

All sarcasm aside, some people are getting pretty miffed over the premise of Resident Evil 5, in which Chris Redfield returns to blow his way through the usual zombie (or zombie-like) mobs.  The mobs in this RE happen to be Black because the game takes place in Africa.  While the creators have assured us that the choice to use Africa is not one made out of prejudice but rather based on the notion of Africa being the cradle of life, GamePolitics proves that the message is not getting through.

Your Black Writers featured an article that addresses the "tragedy" that is Resident Evil 5, and its depiction of Africans as "savages and helpless imbeciles."  Here's a brief excerpt from the piece:

The trailer featured a Caucasian male mutilating African villages, along with Africans. With the not-so ancient history of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, the issue of racial insensitivity and indifference must be brought to the centerfold. This patent-reality must be interrogated excruciatingly to expose the silliness of those who claim the 21st century marked the dawn of a post-racial world.

The article then goes on to talk about Black-on-Black violence depicted in other forms of media, including Grand Theft Auto.  I can only assume the writer meant San Andreas, because last I checked, Tommy Vercetti and Niko Bellic weren't African-American.

In regards to Capcom's response to claims of racism (the company denies it, of course), the writer had this to say:

To say the least, Resident Evil 5 producer, Jun Takeuchi, appears to be a card-carrying member of that classic club which pride themselves in being comfortably uninformed of the racial realities that engulf the societies in which they exist. He claimed to be bitterly misinformed of the racial conundrum he had created. In an interview with Japan's “Famitsu magazine,” he spoke unabashedly about the decision to use Africa as the setting for this installment of the video-game phenomena, saying, "We really wanted to show the origins of the virus, so for the setting we thought, how about using the place where humankind was born... We thought we would use Africa, which is now called the birthplace of humanity." In response to those who labeled his “art-work” as racially-charged, Takeuchi responded, stating, “In terms of the reaction, we're in the business of entertainment… We didn't set out to make a racist game or a political statement. We did feel there was a misunderstanding about the initial trailer.”

Our disgruntled writer concludes his entry by asking readers why there is a shortage of positive Black/Brown role models in media/on TV.  And I ask you this: should I be upset because there is an entire lack of Asian representation in media, or that people think all Asians look the same?  By this mode of logic, I ought to be offended by the Chinese-on-Chinese violence in Stranglehold. 

If Resident Evil 5 is racist towards Africans/Blacks, then was Resident Evil 4 racist toward Spaniards?  As a gamer, I only see zombies.