Scribblenauts: racism or a contrived controversy?

Is Scribblenauts racist? Probably not, but a report on Kotaku and another on Joystiq implies that it is. In the report, Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft puts the word “sambo” in the game and gets a watermelon. He types slave in and gets a white man in a suit.

5th Cell’s Jeremiah Slaczka says that the term “sambo” refers to something other than the racial epiteth used as an extremely derogatory term years ago to describe African Americans. But as damning as “watermelon” and “sambo” being associated within the game, 5Th cell’s explains that a “sambo” is a alternate term for “fig leaf gourd,” an ingredient in the Ecuadorian dish fanesca. DSambo is the local term for the gourd. He also points out that some of the art from the game is reused for multiple words.

I don’t have a copy of Scribblenauts in front of me to put every filthy and derogatory name in the book in there, but this particular case sounds like it doesn’t warrant a news story at all. And yet, here you are reading. I suppose this is a news story to tell you, that at least for right now, there is no smoke, nor is there a fire here.

No Racism in RE5, Says BBFC

When prompted for a response on perceived racism in Resident Evil 5, British Board of Film Classification’s Sue Clark, told gaming site kikizo.com that there is no issue with racism in the game. The question and subsequent answer came after the web site solicited a response on a scene involving a white woman being dragged by an African zombie from a balcony - a scene the web site found particularly disturbing.

“In the version [of the scene] submitted to the BBFC there is only one man pulling the blonde woman in from the balcony, and I can’t say the skimpiness of her dress impressed itself on me, ” she said in a response to the question. “… As the whole game is set in Africa it is hardly surprising that some of the characters are black, just like the fact that some of the characters in an earlier version were Spanish as the game was set in Spain.”

Clark went on to say that the ratings board does take racism very seriously, but sees no issue with it in this game.

Since I haven’t played Resident Evil 5 yet I can not speak to whether or not the game intentionally or unintentionally uses racial stereotypes or imagery that could be considered racism. However, plenty of colleagues who I won’t name believe that it does, and have been hard pressed to play it any further. As much as many would like to believe that this is an overreaction it could just be that where there is smoke, there is fire. We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

Resident Evil 5 is set for release on March 13.

The Top 21 News Stories of 2008: 14 - 8

(Contributors: Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

We continue our countdown of the Top 21 News Stories of 2008, with #14 - #7, starting now. If you missed the first part of our countdown featuring David Chapman, James Fudge and ECA President Hal Halpin, you can check it out right here.

Next: #14 –>

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