You would think the biggest issue with a dystopian movie about adolescents who have to kill each other in the woods Battle Royale-style would be the fact that adolescents have to kill each other in the woods Battle Royale-style. But, no; disgruntled movie-goers, some self-proclaimed fans of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games book series, are more upset with the skin color of certain actors than the gruesome, violent acts that children are forced to commit for survival, which is ridiculous since Collins explicitly describes the racial makeup of two of these three characters in question in the book. Some people, who clearly did not read very well, are so upset about the presence of black characters in The Hunger Games movie that they’ve taken their disappointment and disapproval and put it in the best place possible: on Twitter for the whole world to read.
These so-called fans’ biggest issue happens to be with one of the most lovable characters in the book: Rue, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11, played by Amandla Stenberg. There are also complaints about Lenny Kravitz, who played the role of Cinna, one of the stylists for the Hunger Games, and Dayo Okeniyi, who played Thresh, the other tribute from District 11. Their concern? All three of these characters are played by black actors. The horror!
In addition to personal and societal issues, there are two main problems with the racist backlash. First, the skin color of the actors should not matter. In the Hunger Games, Rue is a sweet badass whose personality and demeanor remind the heroine Katniss of her younger sister Prim. In the book (spoiler alert), Katniss develops such a close bond with Rue that she’s naturally broken-hearted when Rue is killed, and as readers, we tear up a little (okay, we bawl) when we read about her death. Should we care what Rue looks like — if she’s a pale, blonde-haired girl or a dark-skinned brunette? No. We care about Rue as a character because of the qualities she possesses.
Second, Collins writes explicitly in the book that Rue has dark skin and eyes, but that didn’t stop readers-turned-movie-goers from expressing confusion and disapproval of the casting. One Twitter user wrote, “Uuuuhhhhh, Rue looks NOTHING like I imagined her. Isn’t she supposed to be a pale redhead (or was that just in MY head?)? Why is she black?!” Uuuuhhhhh, no, that’s definitely just in your head. Apparently a lot of people didn’t read closely enough. Though, I suppose “dark skin” could easily refer to the tan cast of Jersey Shore. So, the real question is, why doesn’t Rue look like Jwoww?
Milan Saunders ’13 pointed out the obvious misreading of the novel. “I think people need to read the book. It’s clearly stated in the book that the characters from District 11 are people of color. It just shows how far we haven’t come when people make stupid comments to degrade someone’s life work because of the color of their skin. I couldn’t believe people were upset about that.”
People weren’t just upset; some were outraged. One young, ignorant Twitter user claimed that the casting of Stenberg as Rue “not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie.” Not gonna lie, you’re kinda ruining my faith in the American youth. Another moviegoer wrote, “Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad #ihatemyself.” How can a person in 2012 honestly believe that the death of a character is less sad simply because the little girl was black and not white? Worse than that, how can they consciously post that thought on a PUBLIC site and expect the rest of America to jump on their bandwagon? #BlazingStupidity. At least he acknowledges with what little intelligence he has left that he should hate himself for such a racist, ignorant comment.
Lauren Rosano ’14 said, “I’m just horrified that people not only have those thoughts in the first place, but that they are ignorant enough to post them on social networking site where anyone can see their comments.”
The fact that these casting choices have caused such uproar is cause for alarm. As we’ve seen, it wasn’t just one bigoted movie-goer who had a problem with it; there are a whole lot of Twitter users (some now former Twitter users after closing their accounts, hopefully in shame) that voiced their disgust. Have we really regressed that much as a society that our current generation of adolescents will only enjoy a movie if the characters are all white? #SeriouslyAmerica? To make the color of someone’s skin a meter for how sad you are when they die is disgusting. I don’t even want to know what these people had to say about the death of Trayvon Martin. “Not gonna lie kinda ruined the news for me.” One Twitter satirist went so far as to reference Martin when he wrote, “Those people were confused because Rue and Thresh didn’t wear a hoodie in the book.” I’m sure some people out there were offended by his comment, but the sad fact is, he’s probably right; the characters didn’t seem black, which brings up the issue with stereotypes. They’re not real, and shouldn’t be used to clump groups of people together, but in our society, people still use stereotypes to generalize certain groups of people. So if these racist readers “happened” to skim over the line where Collins described Rue and Thresh’s dark skin, they just assumed they were white.
Speaking of stereotypes, one tweeter wrote, “awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture.” The association with “innocent” to “little blonde girl” deeply disturbs me. Why can’t a little black girl be innocent? Rue’s character is definitely innocent, and per Collins’s description, she is also black. Why is that so shocking? For those who seriously buy into racial stereotypes, let me put this into perspective for you. Remember Raven-Symoné’s character on The Cosby Show? Innocent, adorable black girl. Remember Kate Sanders from Lizzie McGuire? Bitchy, blonde white girl. Want more? Watch Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC and you’ll find the phrase “little blonde girl” to be the least fitting modifier. I’m not trying to generalize or say that all white girls are bratty; I’m trying to provide a counter to the ignorant, primal “white, good; black, bad” mentality. Innocent white girls do exist (Dakota Fanning, Abigail Breslin, the girls on Full House before they grew up and did lots of drugs), but innocent black girls exist, too, so get over the “shock” that Rue could ever possibly be black and awesome, and enjoy the movie like a decent human being.
The gross misreading of the characters’ physical descriptions underlies an important, albeit disappointing, truth about readers’ subconscious minds. Since these readers didn’t catch what Collins explicitly wrote about the District 11 tributes’ dark skin, the readers’ subconscious minds automatically assumed that the characters were white. Why? I’m willing to bet (and thanks to modern technology and Twitter profile pictures, I’m confident in my assumption) that many of these confused readers are white themselves. They assume that these characters are white like them because they want them to be white; they want to look up to these characters, and the only way they can identify with them is if they have the same skin color. Again, why? Why can’t a white girl or boy look up to or identify with a black character, particularly since the opposite is expected all the time? I’m white but growing up, I looked up to Tia and Tamera Mowry and watched Sister, Sister religiously. I identified with their awkward, hilarious teenage selves. I didn’t care if my skin color didn’t match theirs. What was and is important is a deeper, personal connection to the characters.
I’d just like to say two last things before I wrap this up. To the politicians in America who seriously want to cut funding to our educational system, DON’T. And to Amandla Stenberg, you could take any one of those haters in a Hunger Games-style competition, so just keep acting and don’t give the idiotic critics a second thought.
