#WTF ?

Two things I enjoy immensely are the Hunger Games (movie.. go see it!) and Twitter.  The following is a post about both…

Most of the social media networks I subscribe to were a-buzz with feedback about the box office giant that came out last week.  For the most part, reviews were good;  die-hard fans and casual viewers alike were satisfied by the movie’s adherence to the book and the fact that it was just flat-out entertaining.

As we all know, however, you can’t please everyone.  I have nothing personal against people who didn’t like the movie (although I don’t understand how you could not love Jennifer Lawrence tearing it up for 2 hrs) but a certain group of nay-sayers caught my attention with the unkind remarks they made via Twitter for the whole world to see.

Controversy (if you can call it that) arose when the film allegedly departed from the book in the casting of a young girl character named Rue.  In the film she was black, but her skin color in the book is up for debate.  I’ll let you judge for yourselves: (from the book)

“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”

Sounds black to me… but to each his own, and I know everyone imagines a fiction book in their own mind in a different way.  All the buzz that arose was because of the way a number of (white) fans reacted to the casting of a black actress for the part.  The offensive tweets (some more racist than others, all troubling though) can speak for themselves:

Racism once again rears its ugly head.  This country has come a long way, but apparently not quite far enough.  This has got me shaking my head in disappointment and disapproval.  That’s all folks.

~HungryJ