"Racism" in Hunger Games?

jorja86 · March 2012

I just came across this article on my fb newsfeed...what do you think?

http://jezebel.com/5896408/racist-hunger-games-fans-dont-care-how-much-money-the-movie-made

I think it's totally ridiculous. I always pictured Rue, Thresh, and Cinna (who I also pictured as gay) as black when I read the books. And, even if I hadn't wtf is the big deal?

motoLyn · March 2012

Reading that article I see it more that these twitter posters are racists and disappointed that Cinna, Thresh and Rue are African Americans and not something else. So in one case the guy felt less sad over rue's death because she was portrayed by a African American actress. That in my head is just plain dumb.

jorja86 · March 2012

Exactly...I guess these people are claiming it's "reverse racism" that there are so many black characters. Which I agree is ridiculous.

bethsmiles · March 2012

I'll be honest that I didn't picture Rue or Cinna as black so I was slightly surprised at the casting but it's not like I had a problem with it. It was just more of a moment of "Oh they are black, I didn't picture them as black". But there will always be racist a**holes out there. Not much you can do about it as infuriating as they are.

jemmini6 · March 2012

I understand the 'reading comprehension fail' because honestly, she didn't spend all that much time describing physical appearance of the characters and I can see how someone might have glazed over it. But to be upset because they are black? WTF? People seriously suck.

bethsmiles · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_racism-in-hunger-games?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:4aaa5100-1249-45c4-860c-f82de957b8f3Post:dfdfa61c-334f-406c-aa97-27cf92639c3e">Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games?</a>:
[QUOTE]I understand the 'reading comprehension fail' because honestly, she didn't spend all that much time describing physical appearance of the characters and I can see how someone might have glazed over it. But to be upset because they are black? WTF? People seriously suck.
Posted by jemmini6[/QUOTE]

Yup. I know that I didn't picture Rue as black because Katniss says SO many times that she reminds her of Prim so I just pictured her like Prim but with darker, olive skin and I must have just missed when she said Cinna was black. So fail on my part.

jemmini6 · March 2012

You know...before they released casting and stuff, I was watching fan-made scenes & trailers on Youtube and one of them had a white girl playing Rue and I thought "that's weird, I always pictured her being black". In reality though, their race isn't a vital part of the story anyways, I would have been more outraged if they cast Rue as someone older or taller because that was kind of a major point in the story.

tdwpg1984 · March 2012

I`ve been surprised by casting in movies before (like Denzel Washington`s character in The Pelican Brief- When I read the book, I pictured a fat, balding, middle aged white man, not a slim, attractive black man), but it`s never really bothered me. Actually I was happy about that one! Denzel is a very attractive man for his age! I would never be OMG the character is black. They`re supposed to be white. This is all wrong!!!

The only time it would make any difference really would be if the storyline was contingent on the colour of the person ie: if the story was about how a bi-racial couple overcame the prejudices of others, then obviously the actors can`t both be white, or if it was say about an East Indian wedding, it would be strange for the couple to be black or white instead of East Indian.

loves2shop4shoes · March 2012

Uck. Some people disgust me. OPEN THE BOOK AND READ! IT SAYS THEY'RE BLACK! As for Cinna, he's the ONLY black person depicted as being "from the Capitol." So STFU.

jemmini6 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_racism-in-hunger-games?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:4aaa5100-1249-45c4-860c-f82de957b8f3Post:bf89ea5b-9727-4785-a31e-9b23922f9192">Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games? : Yup. I know that I didn't picture Rue as black because Katniss says SO many times that she reminds her of Prim so I just pictured her like Prim but with darker, olive skin and I must have just missed when she said Cinna was black. So fail on my part.
Posted by bethsmiles[/QUOTE]

She didn't, the only physical description of Cinna in the book was having brown hair and green eyes (I don't have that awesome of a memory, they pointed that out in a different article on this topic), so that one was left up to casting interpretation. She described his personality more, which is by far more important to the story than his eye color, so they probably just cast whoever they thought could pull that part off and just said 'to hell with his eye color'. It's not the first time that actors didn't exactly match the physical description of book characters.

Elle1036 · March 2012

I saw that article yesterday. It made me want to throw something... or just throw up.

I always pictured Rue and Cinna as black, so nothing surprised me, but it wouldn't have contaminated the movie experience either way.

Plus, that girl who plays Rue is so freakin' adorable... she was a perfect Rue, whether she matches your initial interpretation or not.

eirwyn · March 2012

I pictured Rue as black because Katniss kept talking about her "dark skin". Since she and Thresh were from the same District, it kind of makes sense they might be the same color (I can't remember if Katniss described Thresh's skin color, just that he was huge).

kaitlynmichelle · March 2012

It was really clear in the books that Rue and Thresh were black, and no description for Cinna. People really need to read the books better before they call something racist.

What I took away from the book was the horror of children being forced to kill each other, not "how dare she kill off a black child!"

DanieKA · March 2012

I think it's somewhat normal to picture characters in a book as being "like you" unless it's obvious they are not. For a lot of people that means the default setting is "white" and I can see them glazing over vague descriptions and being surprised that the characters in the movie don't match with the picture in their heads. But being surprised and moving on, and being surprised and claiming the entire movie was ruined are two very different things.

I don't think it's reverse racism, I think it's straight on racism. Wondering why all these black people are in your movie and saying you feel "less sad" when a character you once loved and probably cried over when she dies in the books, dies in the movie is just plain racism. It also says a lot about our culture, when on one hand you have people claiming "oh slavery is over, get over it! HELLO! BLACK PRESIDENT! No more racism!" and yet, you see it every day. These people who tweeted this stuff are young (repeating mistakes of the past, perhaps?) and thought nothing of blasting their ignorant thoughts over the web to hundreds, and now thousands of strangers. That to me is freaking scary as hell.

I fear people see one major change and then think the problem is over and we don't have to continue to talk about it or learn about it or acknowledge it, when clearly racism is still an ever present issue.

elannis · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_racism-in-hunger-games?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:4aaa5100-1249-45c4-860c-f82de957b8f3Post:852a0756-7859-4292-a1e7-63b4fc8dc44b">Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games?</a>:
[QUOTE]I didn't picture Cinna as black but IDGAF if he's a green and purple feather. He was terrific in the movie and the book and I luff him.
Posted by hellotarra[/QUOTE]

I ditto all of this! : )

[Deleted User] · March 2012

I have not yet seen the movie (going this Saturday!), but I did read this article last night. I never pictured Rue, Thresh or Cinna as black. I assumed since they were in the agricultural district that Katniss noticed an immediate difference in the darkness of their skin since in her district most were miners and rarely saw the light of day. I don't think the fact that I didn't picture them as black makes me any less of an educated reader...or a racist for that matter.

I do agree that I find the facebook comments listed in the article completely repugnant. I cannot believe that some people still want to put up barriers between various races, sexes, religions, etc. Unfortunately, I feel that those who read the books and still felt the need to discriminate against the casting choices did not understand the author's message. Panem, in my mind, stood for segregation (ex: the various districts, showing favoritism) and assimilation (amounts of plastic surgery, outlandish costumes). The districts, although having their struggles along the way, were the ones who were willing to overcome their differences and band together.

I simply do not understand how you could feel so strongly that there should not have been any black cast members and still feel so strongly for these books. Somewhere along the way these folks missed the point.

bsidebella · March 2012

I read this article a couple days ago and it made me sick. Especially when I read that little Amandla Stenberg (Rue) was being called derrogatory names. Who calls a little 13 year old the N word?! What is WRONG with people?

I actually did picture Rue and Thresh as black, because Suzanne Collins describes them as having dark skin. Rue actually looked pretty much exactly as how I pictured her, down to the pretty eyes and curly hair.

The only one who didn't meet my mental picture was Cinna, but WTF cares because Lenny Kravitz is a sexy man. I actually pictured Cinna looking more like Stanley Tucci as he did in Julie & Julia (this was before I knew who was playing who, and I'd only just heard that Stanley Tucci was in the film)

Fun fact - you know why there are very few head-on shots of Lenny Kravitz in the movie? He has a lazy eye; he usually only permits himself to be shot from the side.

Fun fact - outside of being an awesome musician and actor, Lenny Kravitz is a licensed interior decorator.

msuprincess04 · March 2012

My boyfriend was surprized by them being black characters, but just because they drew so many paralells between Rue and Katniss's sister that he pictured them looking similar as well. The movie didn't really portray them as close as the book does, but you also didn't much time with either of them.

bethsmiles · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_racism-in-hunger-games?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:4aaa5100-1249-45c4-860c-f82de957b8f3Post:3aeaadff-641e-4996-98d0-455bdac0e0b6">Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games?</a>:
[QUOTE]I have not yet seen the movie (going this Saturday!), but I did read this article last night. I never pictured Rue, Thresh or Cinna as black. I assumed since they were in the agricultural district that Katniss noticed an immediate difference in the darkness of their skin since in her district most were miners and rarely saw the light of day. I don't think the fact that I didn't picture them as black makes me any less of an educated reader...or a racist for that matter. I do agree that I find the facebook comments listed in the article completely repugnant. I cannot believe that some people still want to put up barriers between various races, sexes, religions, etc. Unfortunately, I feel that those who read the books and still felt the need to discriminate against the casting choices did not understand the author's message. Panem, in my mind, stood for segregation (ex: the various districts, showing favoritism) and assimilation (amounts of plastic surgery, outlandish costumes). The districts, although having their struggles along the way, were the ones who were willing to overcome their differences and band together. I simply do not understand how you could feel so strongly that there should not have been any black cast members and still feel so strongly for these books. Somewhere along the way these folks missed the point.
Posted by allusive007[/QUOTE]

You always say what I want to or am trying to say...just so much better! <3

wink0erin · March 2012

I always imagined Rue and Thresh as black since they were described as having dark skin in the books. AlthougH I imagined Thresh having dreadlocks.

With Cinna, I imagined him as a darker skin tone too, since I thought "Cinnamon" while reading his name. I actually imagined him looking sort of like Lenny Kravitz's character, except maybe slightly more reddish skin tone (cinnamon) with crazier facial hair (like Seneca Crane's in the movie).

I was pleased with the casting TBH.

xmansmommy2010 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_racism-in-hunger-games?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:4aaa5100-1249-45c4-860c-f82de957b8f3Post:2584dfbe-5490-47b0-82bc-367c7f1f68c4">Re: "Racism" in Hunger Games?</a>:
[QUOTE]What I took away from the book was the horror of children being forced to kill each other, not "how dare she kill off a black child!" 
Posted by kaitlynmichelle[/QUOTE]

Precisely.

I pictured Rue and Thresh as black, but I really had nothing for Cinna. I liked the casting choice because I love Lenny Kravitz :)

And bside - thanks for the info! I did mention to FI that Lenny seemed to mostly have been shot from the back or an angle, but I had no idea. You really do learn something new every day...