Monday, March 26, 2012

Ignorance Is In No Way Bliss

An article came out today that revealed that some fans are "disappointed" with the casting of The Hunger Games and more hauntingly their problems came from the fact that the characters Rue, Thresh and Cinna were played by black people.

This article, entitled "Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed" shows all of the tweets that "fans" had posted after seeing these characters portrayed on screen.These people were clearly unsettled by the fact that their favorite characters actually turned out to be black.

Tweets like this exploded on twitter:
 "why does rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie"
"Cinna and Rue weren't supposed to be black. Why did the producer make all the good characters black? smh" According to her only good people are white
"Why is Rue a little black girl? #SticktothebookDUDE" She clearly doesn't know how to read
"Kk call me racist but when I found out she was black her death wasn't as sad" This one kills me and I will call you a racist.
There were even more tweets like these and some that were even worse. There was even one where someone called Amandla Stenberg (who plays Rue) the N Word.

The author of the article, Dodai Stewart, does a wonderful job of pointing out the ignorance these "dedicated" fans have. Here is exactly what Stewart had to say after showing everyone just how many people tweeted their racist feelings about the actors who were chosen.
"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 [no] 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.
THIS is the purpose of my blog… and to also point out shitty reading comprehension. LOL"

I 100% agree with Stewart and I can't help but wonder what type of world we live in. To make such a big fuss over someones skin color (who was portrayed that way in a book in the first place) shows that we have some serious problems. What annoys me is that these people feel no shame in posting these types of comments. Do they even see how ignorant and racist they're being? Obviously not. I just don't understand how people can think this way. It would be nice to live in a world where these things didn't happen but obviously that will not be accomplished easily. This especially won't happen if people continue to say things before they have really thought them through. This time I shake my head.

I know people say "Don't care about what other people think" but there are just some things like this that cannot be ignored. Racism should never be ignored. Pushing racism aside will not help it go away. It only adds fuel to the fire and it's only a matter of time before we all ignite.

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