Black Zombies
In a recent trailer for Resident Evil 5, it was revealed that the game will feature black zombies that you kill. Since then, many people have suggested or insisted that the game therefore promotes racism, or is racist itself.

Racism
The first thing to do is to determine what aspect of this is meant to be racist - and what racism is supposed to mean in this context. I personally feel that at this early stage, the only information that we have is that there are at least some zombies in the game that are black, and one of the player-controlled character is white. However, is that racist in itself?

Racism is discrimination based on race, especially negativity, hatred or violence towards a particular race or races. With the footage that we've seen, it cannot be said to be racist. We don't see the character's motivation for the killings, indeed, the most logical assumption we can come to is that the reason he is doing it is because they are zombies; just like in every other Resident Evil game.

It could be said that black zombies have specifically been chosen, because it is a good excuse to kill some black people in a game. However, I don't see the evidence for this. The previous Resident Evil game was based in Europe, and every single person that you killed in that spoke in (what I think was) Spanish. Was this racist? Resident Evil one and two are set in America, and you are killing caucasian Americans in those games. If anything, the games have shown a variety of ethnicities by this stage, but they've focussed on white people so far.

If the problem is that it's a white man killing a black man, and that this somehow promotes racism and violence towards black people, then I imagine this whole idea will be shot to pieces upon playing the game. Although of course I cannot be 100% sure, I think it's likely that Chris (the main character) will talk to black people in the game in a friendly and reasonable way. He will only shoot black people who have turned into zombies; just like anyone else. In fact, at the start of the trailer, we see Chris walking through a village, with black people, and he doesn't attack them until they are zombified.

Another angle is that black people are being shown as savages. But once again, it's the fact that they're zombies which makes them savage. In the trailer we see black people before they are zombies, and they are not savage at all.

It Looks Weird
Whilst I think it's absurd to say that it is racist to have a white man shooting black zombies in a game, I do think that from an aesthetic point of view that a black zombie is peculiar. This is probably just because it is unusual. Similarly, if there was a vampire film, in which all the vampires were black, I'd find it unusual, because vampires are normally depicted as being white - like zombies.

But this doesn't mean that it is a bad thing. I think that it takes the game in a new direction, setting it in a new location, with different-looking zombies.

Ethnicities in Other Games
This is not the first game to have specific nationality / ethnicity for the enemies, and as far as I know, far less fuss was made about them. Off the top of my head theres;

Goldeneye 007 - Russians
Call of Duty - Germans
Metal Gear Solid 3 - Russians
Resident Evil 4 - Europeans (Spaniards)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein Germans
Mercenaries - Koreans
Crysis - Koreans

Sensitivity
I think that there is a sensitivity to seeing black people getting killed by white people, due to atrocities which have happened, and still happen today, and also due to the level of racism which still exists directed against black people. Whilst I understand this sensitivity, I think that it's something which needs to be overcome. A game like this isn't going to set out to show black people in a negative way, and the developers have already shown that they are willing to put other ethnicities as zombies and bad guys. If people really accept equality, they'd be happy for any ethnicity to be used as a hero or enemy, because it doesn't make a difference.

If Chris said "Wow, I sure am glad that they're black zombies this time, it makes my job easier," then I'd say that's racist. That could be seen as a joke by some people, but of course could easily be upsetting to others, and I think there would be a genuine case to discuss whether it should be in the game or not. But at this stage, that kind of thing hasn't even been shown.

Too Much Assumption
The game isn't finished yet, and we've only seen a bit of footage of it. For all we know, none of that could be in the final game, or there could be other sections with different ethnicities of zombie. There could even be a black playable character, negating the white-black racism, surely. I would agree that the images are quite unsettling, and maybe even shocking, but a moment's reflection should give you time to logically realise that it isn't harmful or racist, it's just a new setting for the game, and the inhabitants are a different colour.