Sometimes it is necessary to report on the negative as well as the positive. This weekend Hunger Games, based on the book by Suzanne Collins hot the silver screen. It was released to rave reviews, and it grossed the third highest weekend sales receipts EVER . But of course not every fan was happy. Some ignorant fans were upset with the casting of Rue, who is African American in the book being described as having “Dark Brown Skin”, by a black woman.
As Jezebel notes, many “Hunger Games” viewers resorted to sending racist tweets over the fact that Rue (played in the film by young actress Amandla Sternberg) was black.
One ignorant fan wrote,
“Why does Rue have to be black. Not gonna lie, kinda ruined the movie.”
Wrote another user, whose account has been deleted,
“Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the innocent blonde girl you picture,”
For some reason the Hunger Games has been plagued with this garbage since the poster was released last summer. The poster showed Rue and Cinna (played by Lenny Kravitz) and elicited the same racist junk.
One fan wrote at the time,
“I thought she would be white,”
The Hunger Games is based on a novel about a post apocalyptic North America which has been replaced by a system of feudal districts. Every year each district selects a boy and a girl to fight in the hunger games, a gladiatorial system of games where the children all fight to the death.
The Hunger Games is in theaters now.