i’m upset with the hunger games fandom right now. not all of it, but enough of it to notice a pattern of racism leading up to the sunrise on the reaping movie. i see all these posts, mostly on other apps, mourning the deaths of children in sunrise on the reaping that leave out two major roles.
ampert is the picture of a sweet little boy, one who is blindingly intelligent, wholeheartedly good, deeply aware of systemic problems more privileged children can ignore, and a natural leader even from the age of twelve.
his death is tragic because he’s young, because he has so much potential for good, because he means so much to our perspective character, haymitch, because it was so brutal, and because it was a punishment for someone else’s crimes. you would rather mourn louella and lou lou for the same reasons and leave him out, though.
lenore dove is also a deeply loving, intelligent, revolutionary CHILD. we see her through the eyes of haymitch, who adores her, and the narrative wants us to love her the way he loves her. her death is completely heartbreaking, no question. it’s less often than ampert, but she is still too often left out of the conversation.
in short: there is no excuse not to grieve them the way you grieve other characters. there is no reason their deaths shouldn’t be as impactful as others, if not more.
this is not to downplay the other deaths in that book. absolutely, they are all incredibly tragic. this is just to say that when i see your tiktok edits with louella and maysilee and lou lou and wyatt, and no lenore dove, and no ampert, it tells me everything i need to know about you.
it tells me enough to guess how you react when a REAL Black child dies, and like lenore dove, their death is falsely labeled an accident, and no one questions it. it tells me how you react when a REAL Black child is murdered by officials who are meant to serve the public, for someone else’s crime, the way ampert was.
these things happen. regularly. in the real world. if you can’t even pick up on the deep unjust tragedy of Black children who are murdered in fiction, when it’s handed to you on a silver platter labeled with all the reasons you should be outraged, i have no faith in your awareness of the real world. i have no faith in your priorities. i have no ability to believe you are trying to unlearn anti-Black racism nor that you are trying to bring awareness to it for others.
this is my perspective as a white person from the united states who has been a hunger games fan since i was ten years old, and who is actively trying to unlearn implicit racism and especially anti-Black racism, and do what i can to fight it when i see it.
if anything i’ve said seems incomplete, or unknowingly does more harm, please tell me if you can. i want to know when i do harm so i can fix it to the best of my abilities. i’m also absolutely sure Black fans have said the same things i have, much better than i can because they are speaking from experiences i don’t have, but i don’t want to stay silent. it should not always be the sole responsibility of Black fans to point out racism in fandom spaces.
stop devaluing Black characters, and stop devaluing Black people. it’s not acceptable and never has been.
