Hey, so, Racism Still Exists...

So I haven't read The Hunger Games.

I avoided it like the plague when working with middle schoolers who were obsessed. I'm pretty sure a few of them lost some respect/love for me because I refused. I also refused to read Twilight. I don't know why I was so vehemently opposed to reading The Hunger Games. Perhaps it was because I saw my fellow teachers and tutors pulled into the story and children fighting over extra copies. It was like reading warfare. I stayed away.

Now, of course, the movie is out and I'm one of the few who didn't sit outside the theater for a ticket. I won't see the movie unless I read the book. If there is a copy of it at the used bookstore, perhaps I will pick it up. Otherwise I guess I'll be the odd woman out.

I bring this Hunger Games-ness up because of an article I read that, well, made me sad and angry. Jezebel reported that a number of Hunger Games fans were disappointed by the fact that three characters were played by black actors. This is despite the fact that the book explicitly describes them as having "dark brown skin" and the author explicitly saying they are meant to be read as "African American". People were up in arms...including a number of teenagers. The same age of my former students. One tweet basically said something along the lines of "why did they have to make all the good characters black?"

All the good characters. Good. Black can't be good. No. Never. Like what?!

Le sigh.

There was another article on Jezebel talking about how we whitewash characters. Unless explicitly described as another race, we assume characters are white (or in this case, we don't care how they are described, if we like them, we want them to be white). Of course this reminded me of a post I wrote in the fall on race, casting, and playwriting. It also reminds me of my bookstore problem post, which discussed the covers of books in a small teen section of a bookstore.

The Hunger Games "b(l)acklash" doesn't show anything new. Instead it solidifies that racism is still being taught to children whether we realize it or not. Ideas and stereotypes about what people of a certain race can or cannot, should or shouldn't do, do or don't do are still being taught. We may have a black president, but there are a number of people who believe that he (and all black people for that matter...and, well, pretty much anyone who would fall into the "minority" category) shouldn't be able to be president. We have people that believe that black and latino children shouldn't wear hoodies, but nothing is said for the white hipsters rocking their hoodies. Of course, we could broaden the spectrum. We have people that believe marriage can't be between two men or two women. We have people that believe that Ellen can't represent JCPenney.

I can't imagine what some people believe I should and shouldn't be doing because of the color of my skin.

I also don't care.

So. The question remains. Will I read the book or not? Will I see the movie or not? Only time will tell.