Hunger Games Tweets

lesserjoke asked: I haven't been able to see the movie yet myself, but one of my friends made the following comment: "It did surprise me a little that they chose to portray the rioters in her district as overwhelmingly black instead of going for a mixture of races. Obviously the movie didn't condone the tactics used to quell the riot, but it almost seemed to play into the stereotype of blacks as being more violent and aggressive than other races, since they were the ones to riot in the first place." Any thoughts?

Well… I might end up spoiling a few things for you in my response.

District 11, according to the books, left many believing that the district was predominantly black.  In Catching Fire, we’re introduced to a guy named Chaff who, like Rue and Thresh, is described as being dark skinned.  He’s a previous victor from District 11.

So, the movie took some creative liberties with that scene.  It didn’t happen in the first book.  Katniss and Peeta do what’s called a “Victory Tour”, where they visit all of the Districts and make a speech and yada yada yada.  While in District 11, Katniss says something that touches the hearts of the citizens (I won’t say what).  One guy salutes her, and then gets shot in the head by a peacekeeper.  THEN a riot breaks out and Katniss and Peeta are rushed out of dodge.

Once Katniss goes back home to District 12, she learns from a secret transmission sent to the mayor that District 11 is now in complete revolt.  I think this was the scene that they snuck into the movie.

I didn’t take offense or try to read into it in a racially offensive way.  Rue’s death was the saddest of them all… enough to conjure up the emotions needed to start a riot.  If it HAD to happen in one of the districts, it would have to have been D11.

wincheester asked: I actually thought Rue would be Indian (from India, not American Indian) when I read the books. Is that at all common?

It’s common… I’ve come across several opinions suggesting a South Asian Rue.

I’ve seen people suggest Rubina Ali from Slumdog Millionaire for her casting.

animusexformo asked: Awesome tumblr, but I can't follow you due to the overwhelming racism and stupidity I keep seeing. As a black male, with all the events that have been happening lately, my level of depression is at an all time high. You think 20 years would be enough time to get used to it, but nope. Keep up the good work trying to correct these people, you have a much higher constitution than me.

I see where you’re coming from with regards to that feeling of depression.  There are some things that are too difficult to get used to.

But thank you.

toomanytopics asked: I totally see what you're doing with this blog and many if not most of the posts are spot on for the point of the blog. But really, lay off the people who are just surprised. I read the book like a week ago and totally skipped over the part where they were describing Rue. I was surprised when I saw Amandla on screen, but her performance was amazing and it didn't affect my view on the character. I think a lot of people just skimmed the description and were a little surprised.

But really, lay off the people who are just surprised.

I’ll lay off the ‘surprised’ people, but not for the reasons you’ve mentioned.

When the Transformers movie came out, I was ‘surprised’ that Bumblebee was now a Corvette rather than a VW bug.

When the Spiderman movie came out (with Toby), I was ‘surprised’ that the webs were shooting from out of his wrist.

The enormous contingent of people that were surprised that Rue was black though….

I mean… just how much skimming and skipping are we talking about here?

But I digress…

I’ll leave the surprised folks alone, but it’s really because once the movie premiered, there’ve just been WAAAAAYYY TOOO MANY surprised people to keep up with.

adamkissyoureve asked: This blog is awesome! I haven't seen the movie yet but, I remember Thresh and Rue were supposed to be black. Did the book ever specify what Cinna looked like? I though capitol citizens were supposed to have tattooed skin? Thanks! :)

The only real descriptions given of Cinna were:

* green eyes with gold eye-liner

* short cropped brown hair

fruitpunchmouth asked: Your tumblr has really depressed me. Thanks for ruining my night! I don't blame you, i blame all the fail in this country.

LOL, welcome to my world.

intrinsi-c-deactivated20120423 asked: I am guilty of glazing over the details of Rue's description, and as I continued throughout the novel, I just placed Rue in the same mold as Prim, being a small caucasian girl. When I discovered that Rue was black, it didn't shock me nor did it decimate the overall quality of the scenes she was in. It was just an "oh, I don't remember reading that" moment, but now I see that descriptions of her skin did exist in the book.

I recognize your icon and I think I sent you that correction on Twitter.  Yours is a good attitude.

bberg1010 asked: I appreciate that this blog is shining a light on racism surrounding the movie, but calling someone a retard still is not ok. A lot of your responses are just as offensive as racism...

I think I remember that post and I’m big enough to take responsibility for using a term like that.  Apologies to those offended.

Many times while trying to update this blog, I’ll come across a tweet that, in a way, seems to be attacking me in a personal way and I’ll lose sight of the language that I end up using.

duupe asked: Just a heads up, 'Caucasian' does not technically mean white people. There are actually some connotations floating around that it means 'the most beautiful of men' - because of the roundness of the skulls found around the Caucasus mountains. It's a little shaky, but I'm pretty sure some white male anthropologist made the connection that caucasian = perfection = white.

I’ll keep this tidbit in mind for the next time I’m on Jeopardy. :o)

angelofpuretorture-deactivated2 asked: lol wow people are really racists, hey i mean its okay if you thought she was white. They probably read the book a long time ago, i thought cato and clove were black for some reason. But the outrage... Honestly. So what if she's black? She is cute and sweet. She fits Rue. and the people who say she was supposed to remind her of Prim... superficial to the bone. Couldnt people for one second maybe thing that she reminded her in personality?? Or behaviour? idiots.

The “so what” part if it is really important.  Ideally, it shouldn’t change the story at all.

The outrage makes no sense.

williamsasaurusrex asked: The amount of ignorant illiterate people in this world amaze me... thank-you for bringing to light the morons who can't seem to get past their own ill perceived stereotypes and prejudices to pick on the simplest things like a character description .... although what I'm more alarmed is that people are happy that a 12 girls was killed because she was black ... forever going backwards as a whole

It drives me crazy that they can post such things without even… I dunno.  Do they read what they type?

thehardaway asked: I just stumbled upon this page, and I'll admit I haven't read the Hunger Games, but kudos to you for this blog. This an important and disturbing phenomena that needs to be addressed. The mental "white washing" of anything or anyone deemed important, innocent, or the like needs to be exposed.

I agree.  This exists in far more places than a simple Hunger Games fandom.  Let’s all make sure it gets addressed.

amienjolras asked: Olive skin doesn't mean you can't be Caucasian. I mean my mother and brother have olive skin and dark dark brown hair and they are Caucasian. I think jennifer was perfect for the role and remember her mother and sister are vary pale and fair so even if she has a different skin tone she is still the same race.

To the dismay of many, I’m not on the bandwagon of saying that Katniss was unequivocally a POC.  And that’s because, where I live, many of my Portuguese, Greek and Italian friends/acquaintances have always made reference to the word ‘olive’ when describing themselves.

vivalaevolucion asked: You would expect that people who make these remarks would stand by them. They're admitting their guilt and wrongdoing by trying to rephrase after prosecution from their peers. I've been tweeting these bama's all day making sure that they realize their ignorance has been plastered all over tumblr.

I’m guessing you get one of the following responses:

1. Oh, I guess I missed that part

2. I read the books a long time ago and forgot, lol.

3. I just skimmed through all three of the books in two days, never noticed.

4. I don’t picture peoples’ races when reading books.

5. Who the heck are you?

6. No response (quietly deletes their tweet)

tngo614 asked: Have you sent a link/rt to your tumblr for any of these? They really should see it...has anyone corrected them?!

I’ll reach out to people on Twitter sometimes without showing their tweets here and kinda tap them on the shoulder and show them the page reference to correct them.

People who’ve been featured here… I don’t reach out to them after the fact.  People I’ve seen it happen where others who see the posts go and reply to them.