By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Racism: Alive and Well in America
SPOILER ALERT: Major spoiler for the film The Hunger Games contained herein. You have been duly warned, so no whining if you choose to read more.
News flash: Racism is alive and well in America.
Not that this is shocking news, I know. I may be a socialist liberal white girl living in Seattle, but I grew up in Oklahoma, where racism is much more out in the open than it is in these parts. Even here in Seattle, where we pride ourselves on our lauded diversity, we still tend to prefer most of our diversity to keep to its own neighborhoods. But hey, apparently there are people out there who are way more racist than that.
Take, for instance, this Jezebel story this morning about a Tumblr blog that’s collecting the stupid racist remarks people have been making about The Hunger Games. Specifically, apparently some people have their white sheets panties in a twist because they were shocked — in spite of it being very clear in the book that these characters have dark skin — that Rue and Thresh were, wait for it — Black. I’m not making this up: It is shocking – and offensive! – to these people that characters clearly described as dark skinned in the book would be cast with African-American actors. Or, maybe that there are any Black actors in the film at all, hard to say.
What really boggles the mind about these Tweets are the people describe feeling “betrayed” by this revelation that Rue was Black. Does it make you an asshole if you feel less sad about a character’s death when you learn she was a Black girl? Why yes, it does. Some of these people are pissed that they were “tricked” into feeling sad about a Black girl dying. I mean, are you kidding me? I really don’t know what to say to or about these people other than: You are a huge part of what is wrong not only with America, but with the world. I feel sad for you, and for the rest of us who have to deal with the consequences of your racist bullshit on our ability to live as a peaceful society; not sad that you exist as fellow humans, but sad for you that you were either raised with these values or came to acquire them on your own and become … this.
See, this is why this kind of dystopian world isn’t that far of a stretch, folks. Sad but true. Welcome to The Hunger Games, where class, race and religious warfare are alive and well. Somewhere between The Hunger Games and The Road lies the probable future of the human race.
well said
I agree, but I hope someone thinks to throw this into the proper perspective. Consider that about 15 million people saw this film over the weekend. Even if there were hundreds of people who were dissappointed by the race of the district 11 tributes (and Cinna), there were also nearly 15 million who didn’t think twice about it. A small but vocal group of people making thoughtless, or even downright stupid, comments should not incriminate the entire audience. Yes Kim, there are racists out there… There are even some who were just surprised because they didn’t read the books very well. But check your percentages before you believe that a significant portion of the audience was displeased by what they saw, or even that a large percentage are racist. Within the limitations of a two and a half hour movie, I thought it was a great god’s-eye-view summary of the book, and took few liberties with the source material. But your point is well taken, some people are just stupid…
Why has no one seemed to notice that these twitter pages they posted don’t actually exist? I could only find one account that was real of all the ones they posted pictures of.
Gus, great point… Since I never visit Twitter I assumed that someone had fact-checked this information. “Never assume” is the motto of the day…
If you checked sooner you would have found the twitter accounts. Most have been turned off or set to private for obvious reason.
They should think before they post. People (especially young folks) need to realize this before posting stupid and hateful things online.