The Bitchin’ Table: Hunger Games Edition

FemOnFire: Hey Femistorian!

Femistorian: Hey FemOnFire! So I have to ask, have you seen The Hunger Games yet?

FemOnFire: I have! I thought it did a great job of staying true to the book! Have you seen it?

Femistorian: I actually just saw it this past weekend. To be honest, while I thought overall they did a decent job, I was very disappointed that they left out or changed some of the political story lines. But that’s not all I was disappointed in. Did you read this story over at Jezebel?

FemOnFire: I did read that. I was absolutely shocked to read some of the reactions that fans expressed, and especially the passive way that they did so. I couldn’t believe that the race of one of the main characters would make such a drastic difference in how someone felt about her.

Femistorian: Tell me about it! To make matters worse, Rue is actually described as having “dark brown skin” on page 45 of the book! So apparently a lot of American teens are both horrible at reading comprehension AND extremely racist.

FemOnFire: Exactly! Being so upset about casting (only a few) characters according to their descriptions in the book is unfair. Something else that really bothered me was that a lot of them began their statements with a disclaimer saying that they didn’t want to sound racist. That seems to indicate that they knew what they were saying was wrong.

Femistorian: I think what bothered me the most is that, these are people who read the books. They obviously felt strongly about Rue and her death, and came to love her character. The fact that those feelings were immediately destroyed when they realized that Rue was black speaks volumes about race relations in our country.

FemOnFire: I completely agree. There seems to be a lot of that going around, and a lot of denying the role that race clearly plays in our collective consciousness. There’s been a similar callousness in some reactions I’ve seen to the recent murder of Trayvon Martin.

Femistorian: I know! It’s odd, or even saddening, because after Obama won the election four years ago a lot of commentators remarked that it was the beginning of a post-racial America (granted they were totally ignoring white privilege). But four years later, it seems that we’re sliding right back in the 1960s.

FemOnFire: It really does. Both of these cases are particularly disturbing to me, because they go deeper than just perceiving someone differently because of the way they look- each of these examples showcase the way that we feel about a person being killed, and in the most brutal of ways. It reflects this idea that someone’s life is less valuable and their death less tragic because of the color of their skin.

Femistorian: I think one of the biggest roots of this problem is the way we’re taught about race relations in school. In all of our history classes, we’re taught about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, and how we resolved everything and now people live together happily. But that obviously isn’t the case. I believe that we have to teach children and even adults that, while we made a great deal of progress in the latter half of the twentieth century, we still have a long way to go.

FemOnFire: I think you’re right. And we also need to learn that acknowledging race and the impact it has on us doesn’t imply racism, so long as it’s not disrespectful or disempowering. Talking openly and respectfully about race is the first step to educating ourselves, which is the only way to truly make progress happen.