In “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, the characters of Rue and Thresh are described as having “dark brown skin”.
But it appears that some fans have overlooked this fact–or misunderstood it–and are upset that those characters were portrayed by African-American actors in the film version, and took to Twitter to voice their opinions.
One user tweeted, “I was pumped about the Hunger Games…until I found out a black girl was playing Rue.”
One tweet even referred to Rue–played by 14-year old Amandla Stenberg–as a ni**er.
While some of the tweets referred to Dayo Okeniyi and Lenny Kravitz, who play Thresh and Cinna, respectively,
The tweets became public when a Tumblr blog called HungerGamesTweets posted them, and the backlash was almost immediate. HungerGamesTweets posted a “thank you” to followers for the reduced amount of offensive tweets.
But the fact is, a lot of people have already seen the offending tweets and are outraged.
I can’t believe ppl are upset that Rue and Thresh are played by black actors in HG. Did you not read the book? http://t.co/ljlkoQ2C
Okay internet. Between the slandering of Trayvon Martin & the racist Hunger Games tweets, I think I’m sufficiently depressed about humanity.
I have now read 12 pages of that tumblr with the racist hunger games tweets. Someone please stop me before I explode.
My faith in humanity is shaken after all those racist Hunger Games tweets… I can’t even…
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