Amandla Stenberg and Dayo Okeniyi
*Unfortunately racism has reared its ugly head at the box office in the form of the smash hit movie “The Hunger Games.”
In the film Amandla Stenberg and Dayo Okeniyi landed the roles of Rue and Thresh, respectively
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But the relative unknowns playing tributes from District 11 in the dystopian saga (which scored a historic $152 million its opening weekend and rave reviews) are the subject of an offensive debate among some obviously racist fans of Suzanne Collins’ blockbuster young adult novel, as reported by the Jezebel blog.
So what’s the problem? Well, even though both Rue and Thresh are described as having “dark brown skin” in the book, some bigoted fans, oddly enough, object that both Stenberg and Okeniyi are black. Duh.
“Why does rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie,” complained a fan via Twitter
Added another: “Why did the producer make all the good characters black?”
“Why is Rue a little black girl? Stick to the book, dude,” intoned another.
Another even admitted he was “racist” when he learned of tragic Rue’s racial identity.
“I’m still pissed that Rue is black,” wrote another.
“Ewwww rue is black?? I’m not watching,” another person wrote.
And on and on. Welcome to post racial America
Read/learn MORE at Jezebel.
SO? the characters are black that is the way they are portrayed in the movie there is no need to makea big stink about it. I have seen the books in the bookstore but do not have the inclination to read them nor will I go see the movie.
There’s no more racism. We have a Black president in office. This is post-racial America…..Yada, Yada, Yada …..okayyyy, keep thinking this fantasy exist. They need to get over themselves. It’s not that serious. A damn movie. Racist idiots!!!
The really sad thing is in the book “Rue” is described as a person of color!!! The casting is correct, racism trumps truth!!. The books are a good read, but it is clearly aimed at white teenage girls as evidenced by the heroine “Katniss”. In the same vein as Twilight.
People are going to complain about something – it get’s them talking about something and that’s NOTHING!!! Can you imagine is little Rue was Latina? People would probably lose their minds! 2012 PEOPLE, and yet we still focus on someone’s color instead or character!
This is so ridiculous. These two aren’t the only black people in this silly movie. I went to see it with my daughter on Sunday.
I read all three books and was surprised how good they were as young adult novels. I only recalled they were black when I was on the FB fan page which I liked and the administrator of the page was revealing the actors who were going to play the main characters. When Amandla and Dayo were cast, I was momentarily surprised which made me go back to the books to re-read their physical descriptions.
The majority of the folks spazzing out either didn’t read the books, forgot like I did or are just plain racists. What amazes is many white folks think they are the only race of people who will be around in the future. Sorry to break it to these idiotic white folks, but by the time the future rolls around, white people will be in the minority and people of color will be the majority. Get the hell over it.
So…these cretins didn’t read the novels? Cause there is no way you could miss that these great characters were black
I am glad that two more thespians got the chance to work on this top grossing film, and at least they were not being portrayed as a pimp, hoe, drug addict, someone beating their spouse or brother in drag!
I ain’t complaining!!!!