I have to be honest here, It really made my stomach turn to see some of the tweets and comments that people had on the race of the characters who were clearly described in the book, but what the focus should be on, is how well the actors performed in that role, how well the film adaptation reflected the book. The "i was surprised' or "i was disappointed" because a character, who was clearly described as brown skin, shouldn't be the issue. In my humble opinion, Amandla Stenberg did an amazing job as Rue.
What I find interesting, is the amount of people that claim to be REAL Hunger Game fans, but fail to see pure facts in the literature.
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 mixture of different nationalities, 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, 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, but 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.
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.
You would expect that people who make these remarks, would stand by them. They're admitting their guilt and wrong-doing by trying to rephrase after prosecution from their peers.
There are TOO MANY PEOPLE out there thinking that the movie has done some sort of injustice to Rue, Thresh and District 11 by making them predominantly black.
This was in the book people! And yes, I’m speaking to those people as well who think that ‘stereotypes’ are being abused by having D11 be the agriculture district. This is NOT THE CASE.
If anything, it’s history. Read a textbook. And the lesson is… history can repeat itself.