“

Olive skinned is a broad term: it can describe the skin color of a range of people, from the Mediterranean and some other parts of Europe, to the Middle East, to regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Latin America. The playing field for Katniss was so broad, but what do the casting directors and directors decide to do? Choose to tan up a white woman and actively exclude anyone who doesn’t fit into the white actresses category.

…This is not about Jennifer Lawrence’s acting abilities at all. She’s a fantastic actress and did a wonderful job. What it is about is the sad fact that the casting pool was so narrowed and discriminatory. Whitewashing is a really dangerous thing that occurs not only in Hollywood, but in every form of media. White people do NOT have to worry about seeing themselves represented in the media, it’s commonplace. But what about the fact that many children always see people who don’t look like them? That isn’t fair and it isn’t right.

“

Young women of color who read this book rejoiced at finally finding a book with a main character to whom they could relate, especially readers of biracial or Native American descent, who have a particularly hard time finding characters of a similar background. The Hunger Games were a step in a right direction, a step forward for young adult books, a glimpse into a future where characters of books are universally relatable.

The movie, on the other hand, was a step backwards, a slip back into the old mentality that white people cannot relate to anyone other than a white characters on the big screen (despite the fact that Hollywood asks people of color to do this with nearly every single movie).

“

Part of the reason folks rallied in reaction to Trayvon Martin’s murder has to do with ideas about who is an appropriate or worthy victim. He was shot by a vigilante, he wasn’t armed, he was a good student, had some class privilege, he was doing something mundane, simply returning from buying Skittles and ice tea. He was “innocent” and killed in cold blood.

We have an idea of who is deserving of support en masse and who is not. And for similar reasons we thought, with 911 tapes, eyewitness testimony, national outrage that it would result in a prosecution in the very least. If anything, the murder of Trayvon Martin shows us once again that there is no such thing as an “appropriate” Black victim.

Despite all evidence, Geraldo, Gingrich and others have found a way to make Trayvon the guilty party in his own fatal shooting. When brown and black men wear hoodies, they are asking for it. In a moment when it seems undeniable that race is a factor, people are still denying it! They even use victim blaming language.

Last week was International Anti-Street Harassment Week and I was struck with the similarities between the harassment that Black and Latino men experience by the police and the experiences of trans and cis women and gender non-conforming folks on the street. The language used by men of color to describe police harassment, is very similar to the language that those of us marginalized by our genders use to name our realities. Our clothing choices, our right to be where we are, when we want are all called into question.

It seems that this time we can begin to talk across these incidents of violence and see the ways in which societal oppression is killing people. When you wear your hoodie for Trayvon, also think of:

Shaima Alawadi
Rekia Boyd
Deoni Jones
CeCe McDonald

Because these victims were women, Iraqi, trans, they didn’t pass the appropriate victim test. News media and popular opinion hasn’t prompted folks to take to the streets in the same numbers for them. But people are making the connections.