Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Racist Hunger Games fans are very disappointed
81
Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed
The good news? The Hunger Games made $155 million at the box office its opening weekend, making it the third-best debut in North American box office history.
As CNN reports, "Only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight ? both sequels, with the strength of a franchise behind each ? recorded bigger opening weekends." Plus, unlike those two flicks, Hunger Games was written by a woman and stars a woman ? a true lady-centric blockbuster franchise.
Now as you may know, Katniss, the main character in the book and film, was described as having "straight black hair" and "olive skin." It's a post-apocalyptic world, so she could be a mix of things, but some pictured a Native American. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jennifer Lawrence won the part and dyed her hair dark.
But when it came to the casting of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna, many audience members did not understand why there were black actors playing those parts. Cinna's skin is not discussed in the book, so truthfully, though Lenny Kravitz was cast, a white, Asian or Latino actor could have played the part.
But. On page 45 of Suzanne Collins's book, Katniss sees Rue for the first time:
?And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that's she's very like Prim in size and demeanor?
Later, she sees Thresh:
The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, gut the resemblance stops there. He's one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox.
Dark skin. That is what the novelist, the creator of the series, specified. But there were plenty of audience members who were "shocked," or confused, or just plain angry.
The tumblr Hunger Games Tweets has collected a smattering of Twitter postings, with the goal of exposing "Hunger Games fans on Twitter who dare to call themselves fans yet don't know a damn thing about the books." What people are saying is disappointing, sad, stomach-churning, and just plain racist.
"Stick to the book dude." Read the book again, carefully this time, dude.
The posts go on and on and on. It's not just a coupe of tweets, it's not just a coincidence. There's an underlying rage, coming out as overt prejudice and plain old racism. Sternberg is called a "black ***," a "***" and one person writes that though he pictured Rue with "darker skin," he "didn't really take it all the way to black." It's as if that is the worst possible thing a person could be. As the person who runs the tumblr writes:
Here's what scares me?
All these? people? read the Hunger Games. Clearly, they all fell in love with and cared about Rue. Though what they really fell in love with was an image of Rue that they'd created in their minds. A girl that they knew they could love and adore and mourn at the thought of knowing that she's been brutally killed.
And then the casting is revealed (or they go see the movie) and they're shocked to see that Rue is black. Now? this is so much more than, "Oh, she's bigger than I thought". The reactions are all based on feelings of disgust.
These people are MAD that the girl that they cried over while reading the book was "some black girl" all along. So now they're angry. Wasted tears, wasted emotions. It's sad to think that had they known that she was black all along, there would have been so sorrow or sadness over her death.
There are MAJOR TIE-INS to these reactions and the injustices that we see around the world today. I don't even need to spell it out because I know that you're all a smart bunch.
This is a BIG problem. Think of all the murdered children. Think of all the missing children that get NO SCREEN TIME on the news.
It is NOT a coincidence.
Re: Racist Hunger Games fans are very disappointed
I know nothing about The Hunger Games, but the bolded is basically the truth about life, IMO. There are a lot of people who simply cannot sympathize, empathize or in anyway connect emotionally with people who do not look like them, speak the same language, etc. It is one of the saddest things.
I feel like I remember Rue being black as well as Thresh. I also thought that Suzanne Collins made not that they were the field hands in the southern district 11, and that the people there working were mostly black. I thought it was a connection to the south and slavery.
I was also fine with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss. I thought she did a good job. Also, I feel like in there they talked about Katniss's mom being blond and Primrose. So, I didn't assume she was Native American at all.
People still suck.
Zuma Zoom
WTF. These are children posting these things presumably.
And here I was feeling all good about the next generation after watching my gay neighbor kind of fumble over explaining who he lives with only to have the 6 year old next door say "oh, I know (husband's name), he is your husband" in a completely nonchalant fashion.
Exactly this. I remember when they were throwing out the names in the running to play Rue, and I was annoyed that they were considering NON-black girls in that role. She was clearly written as an AA and it very much played into the part of the country she and Thresh were from. Had they not cast AA actors in those two roles, I would've skipped the movie. Enough white-washing in movie casts.
As to all those twitter-losers....
I'm so disgusted. WTH IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
It really is. I have family members who are exactly like this. It sickens and saddens me all at the same time, and I'm so thankful that I was able to escape it.
Also, the people that they picked to play Rue and Cinna were my favorites out of the movie. They were perfect for the roles. People need to learn how to fvuckings read and stop being racist @ssclowns.
Hmmm maybe I am just remembering this wrong? I could've sworn they referenced cotton when discussing District 11. ??
This is disgusting. It really makes me sick to my stomach that there are people who feel this way. I thought her casting was so perfect, and so was Cinna's. These people couldn't read closely enough to get past their mental blocks, and now they have to whine about it.
I was one of the people who was disappointed about the blonde, white Jennifer Lawrence getting cast to play Katniss. I assumed that because of her physical description (olive skin, dark hair, gray eyes), and because of where District 12 was supposed to be (Appalachia), that she was supposed to resemble the Melungeon people. So I thought someone of mixed race would be better. but in the end, I was pretty happy with her appearance, the extras, and most of all her acting.
we all fall down sometimes
brass and ballet flats
I assumed that Thresh & Rue being black was a slavery commentary as well.
I was mostly just relieved that they didn't cast Willow Smith as Rue.
I have this horrible habit of looking up books on Wiki when I'm too antsy to find out the end of the story. Now, I remember reading this, and it District 11 was southern.
District 11 specializes in agriculture. It is located somewhere in the south and is very large. The people are housed in small shacks and there is a harsh force of Peacekeepers. Common traits are dark skin and brown eyes. According to Rue, many tracker jacker nests were left there, leading the workers to keep medicinal leaves on hand. In the orchards small children were sent into the branches to pick the highest fruit. Sometimes during the height of the harvest they were given night-vision goggles to allow them to work after dark. The district also contained fields of grain and vegetables. The inhabitants apparently had extensive knowledge of herbs.
Zuma Zoom
I haven't read the books or watched the movie, but this still pisses me off. Hearing that there is a subtext about slavery, though, sort of makes me "get it" about people intentionally ignoring race. I mean, we live in a country where people put confederate flags and "the south with rise again" stickers on their car and tell you with a straight face that they aren't racist, only "proud of their heritage." Because, you know, Atlanta didn't economically recover at all after the war or anything and is still a smoking pile of rubble with no fortune 500 companies there, so they just want it to rise again economically.
But yeah, considering that a common way of dealing with slavery is pretending it didn't happen, I am not all that surprised that there are so many turds mentally whitening characters to avoid having to think about that issue. It sucks, don't get me wrong...I am just not surprised.
You know, not until I read it all together like that did I put it all together. I kew it was the South, but I didn't think slavery necessarily (any more so than the other districts).
But damn, it's all there. Even down to chewing up tobacco leaves and putting them on stings.
we all fall down sometimes
brass and ballet flats
I don't remember Rue being black from the book. But, like a decent person, I didn't care how the role was cast. I thought the actress who played Rue was SO adorable and played the role amazingly well.
These tweets sicken me.
I also didn't put it together. I also breezed through the book though because I was so anxious to see what happened so I am sure I missed tons of details.
I also though Rue was a red head. Weird
I though Cinna was black the whole time. Lenny K is the perfect casting compared to what I pictured in my head.
So I guess I totally have reading comprehension issues.
This is me as well. I watched a couple of trailers and then I read the book. So I think by seeing some of the characters in the trailer, that's how I pictured them regardless of what little description was given. However, I pictured Rue to have brown hair and dark skin from being out in the orchards all day, not because she was black.
I haven't read the books, but I find this completely understandable. To be surprised by a casting is one thing, but these people are downright disgusting.
I just started reading the book last night, and am totally going to picture Lenny Kravitz as Cinna now.
And, people suck. Especially racist people.
Of course I pictured Rue as black. She was written as black. People are upset she's being portrayed as written? I pictured Katniss as white, mostly because Prim was blonde.
I am trying to remember how I pictured Rue, but I am pretty sure I thought she was black. I remember the quote listed above about her coloring, and had a picture in my head of her being just like Prim EXCEPT for her coloring (same size, age, stature).
Being suprised by the casting is one thing, but to say that you were not as sad taht she died because she was black? WTMF? Seriously, between the WoW and Trayvon, and the subsequent anti-women and racist bullshite that has been highlighted, I have lost a lot of faith in our society in the last few months.
And these appear to be KIDS. I had really thought that this upcoming generation was going to be more tolerant. Maybe not.
Yeah, ditto. District 11 is like Alabama and Mississippi, so it made some sense that they would be black. I read them as black in the book because I can read the words that the author wrote.
Since Prim is always described as on the blond side, I assumed Katniss just had darker coloring, not that she was Native American.
I am so horrified. Rue was super cute and sweet, and I cried like whoa when she died.