http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25817098

That news story shows one of the problems in the world today: racism.  Racism is a foul, horrible thing, and for those people to be so racist as to see racism in a VIDEO GAME is just plain sad. What? You thought I was going to say the game was racist? Sorry, can't do it.  Wouldn't be prudent.  To summarize for those who don't follow gaming news, Resident Evil 5 is the 6th(weird, huh?) game in the Resident Evil series.  It is an action horror game where the hero(you) goes somewhere in the world for some kind of secret, but important mission, and find that your job is made much harder by the fact that for some reason there are zombies everywhere.  Not only that, but you'll have to find some way of killing them all and preventing them from spreading.

Now, the fuss about this particular game in the series is that it takes place in a remote village in Africa...and all the zombies are black.  Oh yeah, and the hero is white.  So the only video clip available for the game at this point shows a little bit of the story, then a lot of the white guy shooting the black zombies.  That, in turn, has led to no less than 6 online racial news blogs to condemn Resident Evil 5 as racist on many levels and includes such statements as "the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young...fearing, hating, and destroying Black people." and  "according to the zombie mythos, the barest contamination, a bite or a single drop of blood in an open wound, spells doom for a person. That could be a parallel to Africa's ongoing HIV and AIDS crisis, or a reminder of the segregationists who used a "one drop rule" stating that black ancestry of any sort was justification enough to deny a person access to basic rights."

To those people, I say YOU are the racist.  I say YOU are part of the problem, not the solution. Here's the problem with their point of view and outrage over this game.  This is, as I mentioned earlier, the 6th game in the Resident Evil series.  Up until this point, every single zombie has been white. Secondly, there have only been 3 characters used as heroes in the Resident Evil games, so its not like they created a random white guy as the hero, he's returning from a different game that will likely be referenced multiple times in this new game. Finally...these same people would be crying RACISM just as loudly, if not moreso, if this game was set in Africa and the villagers were NOT black.  How would they react if the villagers were all caucasian, hispanic, and asian?  Just to clarify, the last game had pretty much the same village setup as this one, but it was set in rural Spain.  Since it wasn't blacks being turned into 'inhuman savages' in the game, everyone yelling about this game saw nothing wrong with a white guy killing lots of spanish people.

As one person so aptly pointed out, stop making a big deal out of nonexistent racism in video games when there's so much real stuff to take care of in the real world.

Now, I agree that there's lots of things to be taken care of racially in the 'real world,' but it probably isn't the same stuff that these people would like to see done.  Reverse discrimination, aka Affirmative Action, needs to go. Entirely. Immediately.  Not only is it discriminating to caucasians, but it is condescending to minorities.  It tells them, 'you aren't as good as whites...so we'll lower the bar for you, so you don't have to try to reach a level you are incapable of doing'.  Somehow, it manages to do that at the exact same time it tells whites, 'you're better than the minorities, but because we want to be 'diverse' we'll hire minorities instead of you, even though they aren't as qualified as you are.'

It is a broken system that does nothing to strengthen or truly diversify our country and economy. Instead, it causes frustration along racial lines, since whites lose out on jobs to less qualified minorities, and minorities are made to feel inferior to whites.

Another thing that needs to go away is the idea of 'Black History Month.'  I've been called a racist myself for saying that, but I think the idea of one race having a month dedicated to their history is stupid and discriminatory toward everyone else.  What would happen if we were to institute 'White History Month'?  There'd be riots and outcries from across the nations minorities.  So we aren't allowed to celebrate our history, but blacks can?

Finally, there's the practice of setting up schools and/or after school programs specifically for black students.  http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200705/20070531/slide_20070531_284_107.jhtml
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200705/20070531/slide_20070531_284_108.jhtml
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200705/20070531/slide_20070531_284_109.jhtml
They are staffed by black teachers, programmed specifically for black students, and are meant to help improve their education by giving them extra help beyond what they normally get in public schools.  Sounds like a good idea right? Well...its all good except for that one idea about it being ONLY for black students! Why isn't there an outcry about that being racist?!?They are staffed by black teachers, programmed specifically for black students, and are meant to help improve their education by giving them extra help beyond what they normally get in public schools.  Sounds like a good idea right? Well...its all good except for that one idea about it being ONLY for black students!  Why isn't there an outcry about that being racist? There certainly would have been if it was a program set up for ONLY white students. Heck, every last person associated with it would have been blasted out of the school system.

To conclude...racism is everywhere...just not where people seem to expect to find it.  And, in my opinion, people who are so obsessed with racism that they can see it in a game that is not racist at all are really the ones who are racist.

Today was the trade deadline in Major League Baseball and the Texas Rangers made two big trades.

They traded Eric Gagne to the Red Sox for a major league pitcher named Kason Gabbard(undefeated in the pros) and two minor league players.  That leaves the Rangers without a closer, but they could always try to resign him in the offseason if they want him back...there was no reason not to trade him when the Rangers have no shot at contending for the postseason this year.  It makes perfect sense to trade him and get something for him before we lose him for nothing in the offseason.  We had offered him a 2 year contract extension with 2 more optional years, and he turned it down.

The other, more controversial trade involved Mark Teixeira, a player nearly every Ranger fan had hoped would be a Ranger his entire career.  It hurts to imagine him in a different uniform(at least it isn't the Angels, A's or Yankees), but considering the news that he was offered an 8 year contract worth $140 million(read: $18 million per year for 8 years) and turned it down 2 weeks ago, its obvious he did NOT want to be a Ranger anymore.  So when you have the opportunity to trade him for a rookie first baseman and 4 minor leaguers(2 of whom could be on the major league team next year at center field and starting pitcher) then you've got to take it.  Considering the rumored offerings for him, we got a lot more than was expected for him and Ron Mahay(a lefty pitcher we threw into the trade to get additional prospects).

I'm sad today to hear that Mark Teixeira isn't a Texas Ranger anymore, but it was apparently going to happen anyway, so I'd rather we lost him now, when we were already out of the race, rather than lose him after next season when we are going to be very close to being able to compete for the World Championship.