i haven't been seeing very many people talking about Lynx Illustration (@/little-lynx) on tumblr, and those i have been seeing talking about her are defending her racism. for those unfamiliar, i recommend checking thgtwt if you have twitter. i alr talked about this a bit in a reblog, but those don't tend to get as much visibility as original posts, so i will be doing a little bit more in-depth about why everyone who is defending lynx is wrong.
people seem to be defending lynx by saying that her depictions of the hunger games characters are just meant to be book-accurate, and that is why she whitewashed lenore dove. her own statement is here:
This artwork was created as my personal interpretation of the book description, not as commentary on or rejection of the actress cast in the film adaptation. I have absolutely nothing against the actress, I think she is lovely and I understand why many people now associate the character with the movie version.
As an illustrator, I always base my designs on the books themselves and not on adaptation casting choices. That approach stays the same for me regardless of the character or adaptation. That’s why you will never see my Katniss being white because of Jlaw or Haymich being blonde because of Woody.
while i completely agree that katniss, haymitch, and gale, among other characters, should've been portrayed by people of color in the film adaptations, this is not a sufficient defense of her whitewashing of lenore dove, ampert, and rue (the latter two, people seem to be forgetting about). lynx may be correct in her depictions of the seam characters, but she is specifically anti-black and this is very obvious with the way she deliberately depicts the black characters.
this is how rue is described in the first BOOK:
based on this description, you can absolutely make the argument that amandla stenberg was also miscast, due to book!rue being dark-skinned. however, lynx, who allegedly "always bases her designs on the books" drew rue like this:
this design is obviously based on amandla stenberg's rue, and not the book. so why is she going with the lighter-skinned of the two if she's always drawing the book versions? why would she not draw lenore dove and ampert as black characters when they've been long-cast as black in the film?
either she is deliberately whitewashing book!rue, or her defense that she "always draws the book versions" is a bullshit excuse to justify whitewashing lenore dove.
moving onto ampert, neither he nor beetee have a canon race in the books. their skin is described as "ashen" (which anyone regardless of race can have), as-is a typical trait likely resulting from the weather and other conditions in district 3. that being said, beetee latier has been a black character since 2013. beetee latier has been a black character for 13 years. there is absolutely no excuse to make him or his son white.
(mind you, beetee is also portrayed as a black man in the illustrated version of catching fire. if you're really that concerned about book accuracy)
side note: i'd been seeing people mention that book!beetee is described as pale, but this is not true. anyone can have ashen skin, it just means that your tone has taken on a pale gray ("ashy") appearance.
if you want to use the book-accuracy defense here, maybe ask yourself the question: "why do you default to assuming this character is white?" because, again, this character has been black for more than a decade.
here is lynx's "ampert," if you're not familiar:
back to lenore dove, there is nothing in the book that denotes her skin color, hair texture, or race. she is not seam (that we know of), she is covey. here are the only things that are used to describe lenore dove in the book:
first of all, i would like to establish that lenore dove is not a ginger. this was a really big point of discourse last summer, but let's just be done with it. she is described as having a hint of red. if suzanne collins meant for her to be a ginger, she would've said her hair is red. whitney peak's lenore dove matches this description. she has a hint of red in her hair.
additionally, as someone who has green eyes, the phrasing "dappled green" makes me think her eyes are hazel, which still does not denote lenore dove's race. she can be black and have hazel eyes. lynx's lenore dove was just a tan white girl with freckles, green eyes, and straight auburn hair. tell me, what's book accurate about that? nothing.
i am aware that lenore dove does not have a canon race in the books. that is not the point. the point is the fact that people are so eager to ignore the casting of black actors and justify it with "book accuracy" when we all know that's nonsense. white is not the default.
if you feel inclined to send me or anyone else hate for talking about how lynx is anti-black, maybe take a second to think about why people calling out whitewashing makes you upset. maybe think about why you feel it is okay to erase black characters from the hunger games. because this is something that lynx has shown a repeat pattern of doing, and it will never be okay. maybe take a second to listen to the dozens of poc on twitter that are telling you that you are wrong.
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