The Sum Of Our Parts

So I should definitely be getting ready for bed since I should be in bed in the next hour (to wake up early for the Career Fair), I just finished reading this article on Hollywood possibly white-washing the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. For those that want a quick synopsis (though the article is a good one and deserves a read), white-washing is when (generally film and TV makers) choose white actors to play non-white roles because they are more "marketable".

I know it must be difficult to find an actor that fits the physical description set out by the author to a T- the article's writer Peta Jinnath Andersen notes Daniel Radcliffe to be an exception- but sometimes it does seem like they don't even TRY to find ethnically diverse actors. I remember myself being up in arms when Vanessa Hudgens' name was thrown around to play Leah Clearwater in the Twilight:Eclipse movie. I'm not expecting a Quileute that looks exactly like Leah to fall from the sky, but I am sure there are plenty of talented Native American actresses that could have been chosen (which they did by choosing Julia Jones, of Chickasaw and Mississippi Choctaw descent).

Now, I LOVED Kick-Ass and I think Chloe Moretz is adorable (and I like her as Emily the Strange), but she is no Katniss. AT ALL. Katniss has olive skin, dark hair and gray eyes...and Chloe is none of those things. Granted "olive skin" can still mean she is Caucasian, but it is also typically associated with Hispanic and Mediterranean people. While I do think the personality needs to be there because wigs and hair-dyeing and contacts can always be used...is this Hollywood attempting to whitewash the movie?

I think a bit of it may just be attaching an up-and-coming star to the movie for publicity. Kick-Ass did well, and I'm sure THG is going to cost a pretty penny. More so than the "Is Katniss white or not, and who should play her" deal, what most interested me about Andersen's article, however, is the reality behind YA ethnic literature. It is true that many a times, the books that deal with a non-white character have race issues and identity as a major theme. And yes, that is a fact of life. But it is a fact of life for EVERYONE, and I would like to see mainstream books about non-white characters going through normal every day life and not have race be a huge, over-arching black cloud.

I know that earlier I discussed how Bless Me, Ultima spoke to me because I do have issues combining all of my different cultural identities. But as Andersen so eloquently puts it,

Skin color is not the be all and end all. I am greater than the color of my skin, just as I am greater than my sex or my shoe size. To know me—to know anyone—is to recognize that we are all greater than the sum of our parts.

We all just want to be known for who we are. But in going against that through whitewashing, they are calling attention to everything we are NOT, and who can live up to that?

If there are mainstream books with non-white characters, that don't focus exclusively on issues of race, or gender, religion, etc, feel free to leave the titles in the comments. Yes, race, gender, etc often cause us to react to things in different ways, because we have been taught different things growing up, have different backgrounds...but we all face the same problems- falling in and out of love, wondering what our "calling" in life is, and those decisions aren't necessarily derived from identifying with a certain race or religion.

I don't even know if any of this made sense, but sometimes a girl's just gotta semi-rant/think-out-loud-and-type.