The Whitewashing of Katniss Everdeen: Racism in the Media
By Kelly McCabe ‘14
At midnight on March 23, 2012, I sat in a theater with dozens of other squealing teenagers. We wore our hair in braids, we had mockingjay pins attached to our shirts, and some even carried bows and arrows. We were all waiting for the midnight premiere of “The Hunger Games,” the first film adaptation one of the most successful book series in modern young adult literature.
However, something was wrong. Something had been wrong with this movie since the beginning of the casting process. Our black-haired, olive-skinned Katniss was now blonde and white.
Let me begin by saying that yes, Jennifer Lawrence is an extremely talented actress who acted the part of Katniss Everdeen well. But for all her talent, Jennifer Lawrence could never and will never be the Katniss Everdeen of the books, because Katniss Everdeen is a woman of color.
Suzanne Collins’s world of Panem is set in the future, and ethnicities do not have the same labels as they do in our time. The reader is left to wonder what Katniss’s olive skin and black hair means—is she Native American? Hispanic? Mediterranean? The beautiful thing about Katniss Everdeen is that she escapes the plight of the token black heroine without becoming yet another white female protagonist in the sea of young adult literature.
There are many who would argue that olive skin could indicate a variety of different skin tones. However, many authors write from an “assume-white” mentality, a common, internalized form of unintentional racism in books and one that is difficult to notice as it occurs. Under this mentality, authors and readers assume that all characters are white until repeatedly proven otherwise. Authors rarely describe white characters by the color of their skin; they are usually made remarkable by their eyes or hair and there is no mention of their skin tone. People of color, when they appear, are primarily distinguished by their skin color.
In the transition from book to film, Katniss magically became white, even though her race had not been identified, and she was certainly not blue-eyed and blonde. In fact, the casting call was only open to “Caucasian” actresses, despite her ambiguous ethnicity. When Gary Ross made the decision to close the role to actresses of color and make Katniss Everdeen white, he participated in a long tradition called “whitewashing,” in which literary characters of color or of unspecified ethnicity are portrayed as white in film.
Minorities make up approximately 37% of the population of the United States, according to the 2012 census. But as a 2006 study by UCLA found, 82% of leading roles in movies are white characters, meaning that only 18% of leading roles are people of color. White people make up less than two thirds of the population, but still make up more than 4/5 of our superheroes, buddy cops, and star-crossed lovers. Walt Disney, one of history’s great animators and moviemakers, once said that movies have a “tremendous influence in shaping young lives.” Disney’s words are true. Movies teach us that we can be magical, heroic, and inspiring. But why, if movies are the great molders of young lives, must they represent a disproportionate share of the people who watch them?
Over-Achieving: A Societal Norm?
By Azuka Manning '15
Over-achiever: one who achieves success over and above the standard or expected level, especially at a young age, according to merriamwebster.com.
Ask a friend, family member or fellow classmate to define the word “over-achiever.” You’ll probably get a definition similar to the one above. Ask him or her to define the same word in ten words or less, and it will be a bit more difficult. They will be silent for a few moments, trying to choose the best and most precise words from their vocabularies. They might say a few words, only to take them back after realizing there are better ones to use. Or some people, if they’re feeling particularly snarky that day, might reply with one word: “You.”
This is just one example of the many situations where over-achieving can be present, and most of us don’t even realize it. Situations like the one above are often overlooked as everyday occurrences, and often we don’t even realize that we make them opportunities to overachieve. Nowadays, the word “overachiever” can be used as a derogatory term, one that is applied to people, who by virtue of their own achievements make those who aren’t as capable, as intelligent, or as motivated feel insignificant. We’ve all used the word at least once in our lives; most of the time the word, or some form of it is used to refer to academic success. But over-achieving can apply to a wide range of topics: school, sports, economics, media, and countless others.
There is one other topic that we forget, one that is probably the most important and the most affected: psychology. It should not come as a surprise that over-achieving and psychology are related. The desire to over-achieve is psychological; it comes from a need to prove our worth; to prove that we are better and smarter than our less-evolved animal kin. Society has always judged and classified humans based on their accomplishments and their possessions. There are countless examples of empires, civilizations, and countries where society was organized in this way. Even today, this mentality lingers in our culture: when we refer to a family or person as lower, middle, or upper class, we categorize and separate them almost as if they were objects. Since the beginning of time, animals and humans alike have named leaders to protect them based on their accomplishments or merits.
Take, for instance, the lion, ‘the king of the jungle.’ It truly is a powerful creature, with its massive size, sharp teeth and claws, and terrifying roar. A lion keeps his place in the jungle because he fights for it; he earns it. We humans earn our titles the same way (sans the blood and gore, mind you). We work hard at our jobs or at school, hoping to get that good grade or move up the ladder, and everything becomes a competition. Eventually, life is measured by wins and losses in those competitions. Names like Taylor Swift, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and President Barack Obama are all easily recognizable; we call people like them celebrities. Why? We celebrate their accomplishments; we aspire to be as famous as they are. If at all possible, we want to surpass their fame. We want to be known for doing something different, something new.
Though becoming class valedictorian or a 2400 on the SAT would be splendid, we want more. We are never satisfied with what we have or what we have done. We agonize over petty things, we think in retrospect: ‘If I would have done this better, what would happen?’, or ‘If I had not made that mistake, I would have gotten an A.’ Truth be told, few of your accomplishments truly matter to people. What is important is that they affect society in some way. Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” By that definition, we all are over- achievers; we just have to find our inspiration.
OPINIONS
The Importance of Sleep
By Jane Bisson ‘14
How many times have we heard that we should be getting eight hours of sleep at night? Most of us scoff at that; we’re lucky if we get six. With homework, sports, and our daily commutes, there is very little chance we can get a sought-after eight hours of shuteye.
It is mostly common knowledge that the brain of a teenager is wired to fall asleep later at night and sleep longer into the morning. I know that most of us, like myself, set our alarms for 6 AM every morning, and if you are like anyone I have ever talked to at our school, you are up until 10:30 or 11:00 at night doing work. Now, if my math is correct, that means you are getting about seven hours of sleep. Although not an ideal amount, seven hours could probably get most of us by.
Seven hours are OK, but hold on. You have a big test tomorrow. You have been studying for a few nights, but you really want to do well, so you stay up a little later. All of a sudden it is 12:30, and you have to wake up in five and a half hours. Now for the entire week you’re trying to catch up on sleep, relying on the energy your vente caramel macchiato from Starbucks has to offer you.
In an interview with Mary Carskado, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and director of sleep research at E.P. Bradley Hospital, the PBS program Frontline explores how lack of sleep is affecting teenagers, and how the problem can be fixed. Carskado talks about how her research has proven what we already know about lack of sleep: that it affects teenager’s ability to perform in school and react properly to all different situations. The most immediate and noticeable effect of lack of sleep is the inability to focus in class and to comprehend what is being taught. This is a major problem, so how can we fix it?
Most of us would blame large amounts of homework on our late night study sessions. Our society in general, as Carskado points out, has put the importance of sleep in the backseat. For whatever reason, high schools have set their starting times earlier. Also contributing are the distractions that cell phones, televisions, and social media present to us. In order to address this issue properly, we must be willing to compromise.
Ask any student roaming the halls of NCDS what we should do about the lack of sleep our students are getting, and I guarantee most, if not all, will say “less homework!” Of course less homework would be fabulous, but if we are going to ask teachers to look long and hard at the amount of work they are giving us and whether or not it is actually helpful, we must also look long and hard at ourselves. Be honest with yourself here, how much time do you spend on social networking? Would it help to just glance at Facebook and then go to bed half an hour earlier? Probably. One of the most radical changes we students could propose would be pushing back the start time of school. Is it likely that this won’t be an immediate response to our cry for help. But it is worth a shot.
More than anything, we must be advocates for our own heath. It is a problem that many of us are getting six or seven hours of sleep to sustain us through eight periods of classes, sports, and hours of homework. If you are experiencing this problem more often than you think you should, you need to raise your concerns, of course politely, with your advisor, teachers, and class deans. The problem will never be fixed if we don’t raise the issue and suggest some solutions. If there were an easy answer, the problem would already be fixed. Even though it is a tough problem, we have to start somewhere.