Racebending.com

hamiltonkitty:

racebending:

joamette:

Hmm…I think that, in some ways, the ‘magical negro’ trope isn’t so much the result of stereoyping, btu the inevitable result of POC being cast in supporting roles.

In most story structures, every event relates back to the main character and the main plot.  Other characters are defined by their relation to the protagonist: the love interest, the mentor, the rival, the best friend. This is unavoidable. Good writers should create characters that are rich and complex, but a secondary character can’t go off and do their own thing in the middle of the protagonist’s story.  Their motivations, goals, etc. must be played down for the sake of keeping focus. Their relationship to the protagonist will almost always be their most important relationship.

  So, what do you do if you want to add a black character to a story for ‘diversity’, but you don’t want to make them the main character or love interest? And you don’t want to make them the antagonist, either, because you don’t want to be racist? You shove them into the role of helper to the white protagonist, like the sassy black girlfriend, or the wise black mentor.

In my view, the problem isn’t that there is something inherently wrong with a black secondary character existing to aide a white protagonist. Many if not most secondary characters who are ‘good’ earn their place in the plot through assisting the protagonist and existing as a foil for the primary story line.  The problem is that black characters are constantly thrown into these roles for the sake of ‘diversity’, but rarely get their own stories, where, perhaps, a white person is playing the wise mentor or best friend  They’re always assigned to the secondary, support position.

bolded for emphasis

joamette:

Alright, here Tumblr, it’s my turn to wank about The Hunger Games after having just read the whole first book yesterday.If you haven’t read it already, expect spoilers, or for some things not to make sense to you.

I’m pretty upset about the characters Rue and Thresh. No, I’m not one of the assholes from Twitter with panties all in a twist over the fact that they are being played by black actors. Of course they are being played by black actors - the characters are black in the book, being described as having “dark brown skin” and “dark thick hair.”

I’m upset because Rue and Thresh, the only characters in the The Hunger Games who are explicitly described as dark-skinned people, are textbook examples of the Magical Negro trope. Click the link for a brief explanation of what that means if you aren’t familiar with the racist archetype.

First of all, let’s take a look at Rue and the role she plays in THG. She is a slight, pre-teen girl whose strengths are tree-climbing, stealth, and knowledge of edible and medicinal plants. Every single one of her strengths and character traits is tailored to advance Katniss through the plot.

Aside from the initial mentions establishing her existence and foreshadowing her plot importance, Rue’s first true appearance in THG comes at the exact moment that Katniss is stuck in a tree surrounded by enemies, and she only survives the encounter thanks to Rue’s observation about the genetically-altered wasps’ nest above.

A few tracker jacker stings and two-days of venom-induced nightmares later, Katniss encounters Rue again. Rue is designed to be the only character who could possibly sneak up on Katniss and tug at her heart strings. Rue reminds Katniss of her sister Prim, who Katniss loves so much that she volunteered for the Hunger Games in her stead and even accidentally refers to Rue as Prim in her thoughts. Rue also happens to show up equipped the exact medicinal knowledge that Katniss needs to heal the stings, right then and there. These herbs end up serving Katniss’s ends well after Rue is dead.

Another major advancement for Katniss was her destruction of the Career pack’s supply camp, which was made possible only by Rue’s ability to travel quickly and stealthily through the pine forest while lighting the distraction fires. Oh yeah, and the fact that Rue had been spying on their camp and had some invaluable intel to offer on the matter. It also just so happens that Rue knows exactly how to use the one item Katniss is carrying that Katniss doesn’t know how to use: the night-vision glasses.

Basically, one is hard press to name a single thing about Rue that isn’t one-mindedly engineered to advance Katniss. Even her seemingly unique love for music simply harkens back to Katniss’s relationship with her deceased father. Even the little girl’s shy but eager personality just seems tacked on to give us a reason to be sad when she is inevitably killed off.

The way hear death was handled was perhaps the most upsetting thing to me about her treatment: she was killed the instant the plot no longer needed her, not a moment later. To be fair, every character died the moment the plot didn’t need them anymore; however, only Rue’s death was used to develop Katniss’s character. Every other death comes off as incidental.

Which brings me to Thresh, the boy from the same district as Rue. After his introduction, we don’t see hide nor hair of him for practically the whole book until he becomes necessary as a plot device to save Katniss. He literally lunges out of the woods the moment Katniss becomes incapable of saving her own life from Clove, successfully annihilates her assailant, and only stops short of killing Katniss as well because Rue. I don’t even feel like I have to finish that sentence. It is simply because Rue. Next time we hear mention of Thresh, he’s on the body count.

I would also like to point out that the only explicitly dark-skinned characters are from the farming district where whipping is the primary form of punishment, a fact that brings Katniss momentary pause to contemplate her relative good-fortune in relation to these people (which smacks of white guilt or something like it).

I’m bad at writing conclusions, but this is Tumblr, not the academy, so whatever. That is basically what I read, and it super bums me out.

Is the impact of the Magical Negro stereotype mitigated if Katniss is read as biracial or as a woman of color? Would the fixation on the races of the actors or on the characters have been lessened if The Hunger Games had more diversity in its main characters as a whole? Do you think Suzanne Collins was aware of the Magical Negro stereotype—or the implications of a character of color dying to drive a white character’s story forward—as she wrote these scenes in The Hunger Games?

The world of The Hunger Games is set in Panem, a dystopian version of the future United States of America.  In that sense, it’s science fiction.  One of the things that made the 1960s show Star Trek (happy view of the future USA) progressive and well, make sense, is this idea that in the future, not all of the heroes are white.  

Which is something we’ve always said The Hunger Games could benefit from.  On our website, to the president of Lionsgate, to the production, etc.  Casting actors of color might attract more people of color to theaters.   (Unfortunately, according to the MPAA, people of color already go to movies more often than white people so there is no incentive for studios to change what they are doing if predominantly white casts still attract viewers of color.)

It might also give the Games some lasting power.  I really believe that a generation from now we’re going to look back and wonder why all heroes in our movies looked like Liam Hemmsworth, kind of like how films a generation or two ago with shallow and archaic depictions of women are less likely to have lasting power today.

The first Hunger Games movie has four central lead characters (lead, you know, as in plays a significant role in story and survives to the next movie).  One was Katniss, one of these characters was explicitly white, the other two of these lead characters were said to look like Katniss in the book.  Once Katniss was locked in with a white actress—if they wanted to stick to salient plot points in book 2—essentially all four of these lead roles became roles for white actors.

What we’ve said to theThe Hunger Games production and hope is what happened with characters like Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) and the other tributes is that if the character was not explicitly described as any specific ethnicity in the book, they should consider opening the casting call to all ethnicities and base it on age and gender or other factors that are described in the book.  So yeah, we’d hope that Johanna Mason would be an open casting call, and that they would explicitly write “submit all ethnicities” (because when you leave the ethnicity off of a casting call it almost guarantees the role will go to a white actor.)

That being said, here are some more thoughts about “race” and The Hunger Games.  (Book spoilers under the cut)

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varros:

scootledoodle:

varros:

It’s not about what you think Katniss should’ve looked like in the book. 

It’s not even that they cast Jennifer Lawrence.

It’s about when the casting call was limited exclusively to Caucasian actresses only.

That’s where the racism comes from.

When you cut out whole groups of people for this role.

Because of their skin color.

Uhhh, they did this because Katniss is described as white in the books. I don’t know if you noticed but they were very nit-picky about every detail being correct like that. Katniss HAD to be brunette, Peeta HAD to be blonde, Rue HAD to be dark skinned. They were trying to stay true to the novel and I don’t think they were wrong to hold the casting call like that. It’s actually really normal. You’re being oversensitive 

Um.

No. Katniss was described as being olive skinned- not white.And I’m not sure if you’ve seen an olive skinned person. But they can be Hispanic, middle eastern, south asian, native american. Any number of things. Considering her mother and sister are both very fair and blonde, my first thought was mixed race anyways. So yeah they were very picky about making the characters LOOK the part.

But the second you just put a tan on a white girl to make her look darker

instead of casting a darker girl in the first place, then that’s obviously the issue. 

(and also, there is a serious difference between hair color and skin color btw)

The problem is that it IS normal for POC to get passed over on roles for the white actors that could be made to look the part because it easier and safer than taking the risk and putting a person of color as the main character and not as a side kick or background character or plot device. 

It’s normal for POC to be completely unrepresented in Hollywood. 

And the fact that it’s still an issue today? 

As a mixed-race woman I’m not being “oversensative” about blatant racism. 

(via formerly-serbranflakes)

To fans who have already seen The Hunger Games, does the film depict Katniss and other people from District 12 as speaking with an Appalachian accent?

In the past, Suzanne Collins has said that Katniss has the accent, even reading  Katniss with that accent at the Mockingjay book launch.

In terms of media representation, this is significant because it is rare for people with Appalachian accents to be depicted in literature and film, and when they are depicted it is not positively. Characters with Appalachian accents are rarely heroes and are often unflatteringly stereotyped.

littleruebird:

I’m so sick of seeing everyone complain about how Rue is “black” instead of “white”. Did we read the same books? Because obviously nothing in the book said that she was white. 

And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor.“ 

She has dark brown skin and eyes. 

Yep. She’s totally white. I don’t know how you can get her being African-American from that. 

“…… but other than that, she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor.”

She’s described only looking like prim in size and demeanor. Do you know what size and demeanor mean? Let me help you out. 

In the case of Amandla Stenburg (Rue) and Willow Shields (Prim), of course they look nothing alike. They are of two seperate races. But, they both are small, dainty, and thin. They’re about the same size. Obviously, Prim and Rue acted the same way which was where Katniss could get that description of Rue. 

And there you have it. Why are people getting so upset about something that was pretty much made obvious in the book? Did you think that Thresh was supposed to be a Asian?