The Hunger Games Fans: How Dare You Trick Us Into Caring About a Little Black Girl?

March 26th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: Screen Rant

I don’t have to know anything about the Hunger Games to know that it’s leaving its mark on American culture in some huge ways. This weekend, the movie made the third highest-grossing debut in North American box office history raking in $155 million. It’s also exposed something we knew was true about black men, women, and children in real-life but apparently also carries over into fictional cinema—we cannot be innocent, good, or cared about instinctively.

I know nothing about Suzanne Collins’ novel except for the fact that the book has cultivated a Twilight-Harry Potter-cultish-like following of which my little cousin is a part of. As is expected with diehard fans, there are going to be indiscrepancies between the way they visualized things in the book and how they are portrayed on film, but I don’t think anyone expected so much outrage over the character of Rue, played by Amandla Stenberg, a biracial black girl.

Call me crazy, but if I’d read page 45 of the novel and saw this sole description of Rue, Amandla is exactly who I would have expected to see on screen:

“…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…”

Apparently for “Hunger Games” readers, dark brown is like the “I’m the same color as you” comments I get from white people during the summer when they come back from an island vacation and think we’re skin twins. They thought Rue would be a dark-skinned white person, and to say they were disappointed that Rue was played by a black girl would be an understatement. The Tumblr Hunger Game Tweets, set up to expose people who talk a bunch of ish but aren’t really fans of the book, as evidenced by their lack of knowledge, caught a startling number of angry responses to Amandla’s character that weren’t just about being shocked that she was black, but more so her blackness changing their entire opinion of the character and the movie. Tweets ranged from:

“Why does Rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie” to

“I was pumped about the Hunger Games. Until I learned a black girl was playing Rue” to

“Kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn’t as sad. #Ihatemyself” to

“Sense when has rue been a n***er” I don’t even have time to go into all that is wrong with that statement.

The viewers weren’t too thrilled about Lenny Kravitz playing Cinna either, although since his dark skin wasn’t mentioned in the book, they weren’t totally blindsided into liking a black person. As for another character named Thresh, there apparently was no clue he’d be black either, despite this description: “The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He’s one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox.”

Another tweeter sent this reaction on the collective inclusion of black characters:

“Cinna and Rue weren’t supposed to be black. Why did the producers make all the good characters black smh”

The most ironic twist in all this discussion is when it comes to the lead character Katniss no one has said a word. That’s most likely because the producers cast a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl by the name of Jennifer Lawrence as a character that was described in the book as having olive skin and straight black hair. To their credit, they did manage to dye her hair dark— it all sort of reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor and Angelina Jolie playing Cleopatra. The lack of outrage over that change proves this argument is not about incongruences, it’s about the inability for black people to be seen as anything but villains in real life and in cinema.

What’s worse is we talk day in and day out about how we need to change the images on the screen. We need more positive images of black people, we need to be seen in leading roles, but will it make a difference? If we’re talking about black films the people who need to see these images likely won’t even bother to watch the movies. And in this case we see that having positive images didn’t challenge any of the viewers internalized ideals about black people, it simply made them view the portrayals as unrealistic, even making them angry that they had somehow been tricked to care about a little black girl when they didn’t think she was a little black girl. If we can’t soften the youth when it comes to stereotypes and prejudices about black people through an entertainment medium of all things, what can we possibly do that will make a difference?

Since buzzfeed and other sites have run stories about these fans’ racist reactions to the film, Hunger Games Tweets has proudly reported that the number of tweets about Rue and Thresh being black has greatly reduced, but I wouldn’t count that as a victory just yet. I’m willing to bet those people have only stopped commenting because they don’t want to see their twitter accounts blasted across the Internet. No one has had a sudden change of heart about the audacity of movie producers invoking sympathy for a black character. Of course, the fans’ reactions aren’t totally startling considering all that’s going on around us in black America today, but to say they’re disturbing, yet sadly, somewhat expected, would be an understatement.

Are you familiar with The Hunger Games at all? Do you think having more positive images of black characters in films is really the answer in situations like this?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • sameera

    i didnt know it was like that. i didnt know white people actually still think like that. but obviously they do and it is terrible so sad. i grew up in a home where that doesnt matter my mom taught me skin color doesnt matter. i am of mixed race. but it makes me so sad inside that people actually value the life of a little black girl less than that of a white girl. what makes white ppl so much better. nothing bc we all are the same. we all hate we all love we all laugh. we all bleed the same damn color. but i have to remember one thing ignorance is where racism comes from. i dont surround myself with ignorant people so i dont need to worry about having racist ppl in my life.

  • Trololol

    I thought Rue and the people from that district were Arabic. The book said dark brown but the person playing rue was light brown. They should have used an Arabic.

  • Tina

    When will racism end? There are so many classy African American people and there are also classy white people – but people are always stereotyping. Both sides have to stop hating. Liberals have to stop saying Republicans are racist. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Yes. There are white people that “think” they hate black people and there are black people that “think” they hate white people. However, when you put one white person and one black person in a room together, they will get along just fine, as long as they both have some class. I live in Tampa, which is most of the time, equated to being in South Florida, and I constantly hear people making fun of Southerners, calling us dumb rednecks. That is such a stereotype and frankly, I’m sick of it. It’s hateful and it perpetuates hate. Hate has to end on both sides of the fence or the tennis match of hate will go back and forth indefinitely. I used to “think” that I hated all black people because growing up I was sent to an almost all black school – when bussing white kids out of their district was mandate. I was mentally abused and assaulted by black kids all the time, but then I grew up and realized that their are good African American people in the world. Hate begets hate. Those black kids were obviously projecting their angst onto me caused by hateful white kids. Luckily, I broke the cycle and can see the big picture now. I really get so angry when some white liberals accuse only white rednecks of being racist. There is racism and hate everywhere and a lot of people calling themselves liberals are perpetuating it. A lot of them feed the flames. Things are not black and white. What do you think a redneck is? A white toothless barefoot person that cannot speak proper English living in a trailer? Actually, that’s just a poor white person that was not given a fair shot in life. Anyway, I could go on and on and on. Everyone needs to STOP!!!! Wake up tomorrow with a smile on your face and say Good Morning to your neighbor. Black people, if one white person does something of illwill, please don’t equate that to the entire white community as being racist. White people, if a black person has a bad attitude, please don’t equate that as all black people hating white people. What we need is a good alien invasion. Yeah, I think some evil aliens invading our planet, would make all the races come together. Also, don’t be a humanist. All this talk about racism, what about people just being nice and polite, period. People don’t even know how to be nice to their own race. Sheesh!!!! How about we teach each other to be kind, period. Nobody ever discusses how horrible it is when people are just plain rude. Ok, and enough with the self righteous bumper stickers. Yeah, you know who you are. Don’t preach to us with your bumper stickers like you’re so much better than everyone else. The other day, this girl with a Coexist bumper sticker on her car cut me off in traffic. Seriously? You don’t even know how to be a nice person, and you’re trying to preach to everyone about the different religious sects living in harmony. Ok, I’m done.

  • Golddoesnotglitter

    It’s sad to know what this world is like. Being honest I’ve never liked a lot of white people (even though I’m one of them) because of their unrelenting ignorance and arrogance towards any other ethnicity or skin color, as has been evidenced throughout history. I mean, has there really been so much progress since the 50′s and 60′s? We like to say there has, to make ourselves feel better, but I really don’t think that’s the case. People are people, no matter what their skin color is; when will we whites fully realize this?

  • Fordchristinaj1

    So sick how people can be so racist

  • Chamariat1

    wowww y do ppl always hate when it comes to black people being in a movie who eva thiz is should be ashamed 

  • http://www.facebook.com/johnnyhedwards Johnny Edwards

    I saw the movie and never read the book.  I really don’t see what the big deal was.  The girl had a cute innocent character that had nothing to do with race.  She was a very likable character.  I don’t see why people are getting upset about it.  I mean, what’s more important, the character of the person or the color of their skin?  Well maybe I shouldn’t ask that question, I may not like what I get as an answer.

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  • MARA JONES

    YES AND JUST LIKE THE BIBLE THE BOOK DOES NOT STATE THAT JESUS WAS BLACK BUT IT DESCRIBES JESUS AS HAIR LIKE LAMBS WOOL AND FEET AS BRASS. THINK ABOUT IT YOU RACIST AS WHITE FUCKER WHO ARE SOOOOOO IGNORANT. I WISH I COULD BE STANDING AROUNDING AND LOOKING AT THE  SHOCKED LOOK ON THE FACES OF RACISTS WHITE PEOPLE THAT DAY WHICH IS SIMPLY CALLED JUDGEMENT DAY!

  • GuillermoGage

    This topic is waaay old, people have been bitching about this on Internet Land well before the movie came out, back when Amandla Stenberg was cast. You are WAY LATE to the PARTY on this one.

    It was very obvious TO ME that Rue was a black kid when I read the book.

    And your article headline is super accusatory. No one is mad that they were “tricked” into caring for a black character. They just happened to ignore that part of her physical description.

  • Roxibaby789

    I see alot of George Zimmerman’s family watched the movie…smh

  • Guestfillet

    Those haters need to find the nearest cliff and kneel down and say a prayer for their forgiveness… smh….

  • CUlaw

    Honestly, from the description of Rue given in the book, I truly expected her to be much darker than Amandla Stenberg.  So for those who were offended that Rue wasn’t white, let’s call it a draw shall we? (just kidding of course).

    But on a much more serious note, I can only imagine how little 13 yr. old Miss Stenberg must be feeling in the wake of these tweets and other comments.  I sincerely hope her parents are guarding her from the sting of cruel and insensitive words.  As a biracial woman myself, it can be awfully tough being made to feel as if neither race “wants” you.  Personally, I think Miss Stenberg did an amazing job in the movie and she was every bit as likeable on film as her character was in the book. #NOH8

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