The Hunger Games
Racial standings, specifically in the United States, are seen throughout The Hunger Games through Rue. Popular culture adaptations directly portray the racial social standings in the United States. InThe Hunger Games Rue, the female 11 district tribute, is one of the two black tributes and overall, one of the only black people seen in the film. In the scene where Rue is passing away, Katniss is singing a song to her and respecting her death because the people in the Capitol never respected her because she is black. By Katniss performing this act she is actively demonstrating how racial social standings land in our society.
Rue entered the games as a 12-year-old tribute, just like Katniss’s sister Prim, however Rue was black. Rue being black gave her the disadvantage of being overlooked, unprotected, and overall, not important in the games. Rue’s popular culture appearance reflects the lowest social racial standing in this movie and book which correlates to social standings in the Unites States. Our world continuously discriminates against black communities as well as ethnic groups and how we often look past them and deem them unimportant. Rue’s death portrays how unfairly treated black communities are and her district (the Black community) are given less opportunities as well as fewer resources in order for the Capitol (our society) to keep their control of these social standings.
Overall, Rue’s part in the games shows how overlooked racial social standings are and how some of the higher racial social standings do not even consider them. By creating Rue as a character, she represents the Black community and how unfairly they are treated to this day through racism.