katniss is POC

haymitch

all of the seam & merchant descriptions.

gray eyes. olive skin. long dark hair, and in (haymitch's case), curly.

blue eyes. pale skin. varying degrees of blonde hair.

do NOT allow for lionsgate, with the go ahead of suzanne collins to whitewash her characters of colour for the coin. do not give racists your support. buy used versions of the books, dvds, merch. do not watch the movie. boycott. outcry. stop being passive in a time where uproar is demanded. do not give them your support when all they have done for the past 14 years, is whitewash, warp, and deny.

listen to POC when they tell you that they're affected by the casting. listen to POC when they tell you that suzanne collins promotes stereotypes. listen to the disabled and the mentally ill when they tell you the same.

we are in fascist times, people. as you all love to say, do not fucking fall for the propaganda. stop being consumerist and go against the things that you will love for a short-term, in order to have a better long-term. i'm tired. the people affected are tired. stop trying to be peaceful in a conservative fandom. there is no room for anyone who isn't anyone who agrees with you here, and we need to start making it common to have other opinions without feeling like you'll get attacked. this fandom needs to come together and boycott. stop the petty shipping drama and the justification for racism shit. stop with promoting harmful stereotypes on behalf of an author who does not care about you and cares about her pay and coin. stop letting nostalgia blind you and start calling for better from the people who supposedly admire.

hunger games fans have rly had their brains blinded by nostalgia and ‘omg this is peak political commentary actually’ bc they go right along w the author who’s father was a veteran of america agent oranging vietnam demonizing the poor revolutionary who’s right to be angry at the class exploitation from his fascist oppressor, which has whipped him and fire bombed his home, which he managed to courageously save several ppl from, simply bc he’s justifiably angry and willing to use violence against his oppressor.

(Love your blog by the way!)

This is a great question with many answers!

Watsonian analysis:

The Capitol has many purposes for this. The first thing that comes to mind is longevity. Keeping children out of the mines actually increases the overall time they are able to work. Growing, developing bodies are devastated by long term exposure in mines (read more about it here). Healthy, normal development = more years working in the mines with a strong adult body.

It’s about productivity, in my opinion, more than anything. Children just aren’t that great at working in mines, this has historical precedent as well. Children are great at working in other labor sectors: factories, fields, etc. But not mines.

Panem is our world but in the future. They know the history of breaker boys. They know the studies that have come out about the long term consequences of children in mines. It just logistically makes sense to restrict mining to adults. And, on top of that, mining isn’t a huge industry in Panem. Additionally to the health risks and ensuring apt adult workers, there just isn’t a demand by numbers. There’s only one main mine and a few smaller ones, with no demand for more as coal isn’t that major source of fuel.

Doylist analysis:

katniss as devery jacobs

haymitch as michel greyeyes

It’s gotten better, some call her Native or Indigenous American, but she’s not really that either. Her hunting is out of desperation and hair braid is so her design stands out than cultural practices or ties. She has more in common with Artemis who was likely her character influence.

And even those who acknowledge her likely being Melungeon still seem to view her as mostly white. Yes, she is white on her mom’s side, but still lives in the Seam and is visibly a woc. Melungeons were mixed, but not seen as white, and from that they would get kicked out of the Camps out of blame for starting uprisings so they created systems of hunting and selling woodland animals which feels similar to the Hob, so they very much were their own group.

And they were mostly black!

Melungeons were a triracial group of European immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans, but given how Natives were pushed into reservations, white immigrants were more likely to eventually move out, and the fact African Americans would escape enslavement or angry confederates after slavery abolition and were less likely to be able to read so the only work they could find/do was manual labor, worked and stayed in Coal Camps more.

But THG fandom is so scared to mention race (other than white). People might call Katniss Native and sometimes mention her Romani descent, but are so hesitant to mention black, in part because they assume she’s only Native (and I lowkey think that may be based on stereotypes about hunting and alcoholism) if they accept Katniss as a woc at all!