Dear Hollywood Whitewashers: The Hunger Games

It makes me sad to send The Hunger Games a Dear Hollywood Whitewashers, because I love Jennifer Lawrence and I love Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, but this was not a role I think she should have been given (this post equally applies to Gale, Haymitch, and other Seam residents, but Katniss is definitely the eye of this particular storm.)  I’m not calling out any one specific person here.  Troubles began when Katniss’s original casting call was only open to Caucasian actresses and were exacerbated when director Gary Ross and author Suzanne Collins both dismissed whitewashing concerns as nothing a little hair dye or makeup couldn’t fix.  A seal of approval from the series’s writer might negate this argument for some, but I’m sticking with it.

The quote we’re examining today isn’t one of these justifications or dismissals.  Instead, these words are from Katniss, the description she gives of herself and other Seam folk in the first book:

“He could be my brother.  Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes.  But we’re not related, at least not closely.  Most of the families who work the mines resemble one another this way.  That’s why my mother and Prim, with their light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place.  They are.  My mother’s parents were part of the small merchant class…”

Now, I get that “olive” doesn’t absolutely, no-question mean someone is non-white.  It could arguably suggest a more typically Mediterranean complexion, and Google Imaging “olive skin” provides results as racially varied as Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and Aishwarya Rai – including, yes, a small number of white people.  However, in my experience, white authors don’t use the word “olive” to describe a white person’s skin tone.  They might use words like “pasty” or “tan,” but in all honesty, they’re more likely not to mention their skin color at all.  Characters of color are far more likely to have their skin tone specified, while white characters much more frequently only have their hair or eye color described – “white” isn’t considered a necessary detail to give, since it’s generally the default assumption for white readers (In the quote above, notice that Katniss’s mom and Prim aren’t specifically noted as having light-colored skin.  Give them light hair and blue eyes, and we fill in the rest.)

What’s more, The Hunger Games gives us two class-based subsets of District 12, both of whom whom have colorings distinct enough that residents can be easily identified as “Seam” or “merchant class.”  It seems strangely coincidental if the (relatively) better-off merchants are all noticeably lighter than the impoverished coal miners – given the below-ground profession of most of the population, the “Seam look” can’t simply be blamed on them getting more sun – and it’s not meant to highlight a racial disparity.

To be fair, I’m not specifically saying that Katniss is Native American.  Or Asian.  Or Latina.  Or Black.  The impression I get is that, due to years of racial mixing, Panem has races that present-day America doesn’t.  If I was casting Katniss, Gale, and Haymitch, I’d have probably looked for mixed actors who couldn’t be immediately labeled as “[insert race here!]”  So, I can’t say what Katniss “is,” but I strongly feel that she is not white.  Casting her as such, in my opinion, stripped the films of a lot of potential richness and of course denied an actress of color the rocket to mega-stardom from playing this extraordinary role.