Between the numerous racially-infused jokes and caricatures of President Obama as a monkey and much worse, and with the murder of Trayvon Martin as well as the comments on Fox News about Trayvon Martin, I'm beginning to think that contrary to what I've been hearing from Fox News and right-wingers in general, racism still exists.
Well it looks like we may have further confirmation of the continued existence of racism from an unlikely source, namely the response of some fans to The Hunger Games. As Jezebel reports:
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.
And what did these audience members have to say about black actors playing characters they didn't expect to be (gulp)...black?
The funniest part about it is that, as the Jezebel piece points out, regarding the characters Rue and Thresh:
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.
Well one thing's for sure, we shouldn't be shocked or confused at the fact that 1) there are still many, many racists out there, and 2) that racists are often some of the dumbest motherfuckers out there, as in so motherfucking dumb that they get angry that a character in a movie is black even though that character is clearly described in the book the movie is based on as black.
But we definitely should be angry. And sad to see how prevalent this shit still is in this day and age.
