The Hunger Games: The Cause Of Racism

Twelve Districts plus the Capitol form Panem, a world where the Capitol believes that they are superior and reminds everyone of that by establishing the Hunger Games, a game where Tributes must fight for their lives and experience brutality they have never experienced before. But how did the world become so cruel? How did North America turn into a place where innocent people must be killed to show superiority? Simply, racism. Of course, racism itself didn’t cause the Districts, but it did lead to the main cause: classism. According to Audrey and Brian Smedley, “Race refers to biophysical variations between populations... race, racist, and racialism convey an agreed-upon sense of insalubrityーprejudice, ignorance, hatred, narrow-mindedness,

malice, and other noxious defects.” (pg. 18) Classism, on the other hand, refers to “a biased or discriminatory attitude based on distinctions made between social or economic classes.” (Dictionary.com) Race and class are linked because they are both “systematic forms of inequality.” (Anderson and Collins, pg. 51). If racism remains in North America as time progresses, then Panem will be the result because racism instigates classism, which accounts for the twelve Districts and the Capitol.
Racism is a substantial issue in North America, and even though different social organizations have tried to fix the problem, they have not fully succeeded.

“Today, U.S. society remains imbedded in a racist system.” (Feagin, 267). America allows racism to take priority over social class, education, occupation, gender, age, religion and culture. Even in the smallest parts of society, like music or literature, racism is still present. Certain types of music and poetry are classified as black or white (Audrey and Brian Smedley, 19). However, people are more discriminatory towards certain races than others. Because of this, certain races have more job opportunities than others. Studies show that there are more black and Hispanic people in poverty than there are white or Asian American (Anderson and Collins, 65). This goes to show that some people are remarkably narrow-minded, and they won’t even let people of a different race work at their company, so these foreigners or people of different skin color lose the opportunity of finding a job that can support them. Blacks or Latinos then end up at the bottom of the class system which means they have less money than white people, who would be at the top of the class system. Racism isn’t only towards adults, but

children, too. “Segregation levels for black and Hispanic children are higher than for their adult counterparts, despite a general reduction of segregation over the last 10 years.” (Feagin, 271). These children that grow up being segregated will then know nothing but racism as adults, and America will once again be a land of segregation, but worse. America will turn into a region where the land will be divided based on race and class. Rebellions will start to take place on how segregation is unfair or how it is fair. Finally, the result will be the Districts and the Games to keep order in North America. The top Districts, like District One, are the wealthier districts whereas Districts like District Twelve are more poor. “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.” (Collins, 7). Katniss herself is saying that since District Twelve is so poor, they don’t even have enough food to feed themselves. The result of racism and classism is seen with Thresh and Rue. People from District Eleven have darker skin color, and when compared with the Capitol, the Capitol has very little black people and mostly has people of light skin color. Not only this, but they are the wealthiest segment of Panem which shows they are superior.
Ultimately, racism is a negative problem, but there is a path that can be taken to avoid total destruction and Panem.

“...in U.S. history, the most significant alterations in systemic racism have come when black Americans and their allies, including other Americans of color, have organized and battled for societal change.” In order to fully eliminate racism, everyone, even if they are of different race, must work together to abolish this discrimination. They must learn to be civil to each other and put differences behind them. Once everyone learns to accept each other as human beings, racism will be a fragment from the past, and the path to Panem would be avoided. All in all, if racism is kept alive, the Districts will start to take shape with all of the segregation and classism caused by this discrimination, so more effort should be concentrated into ending segregation to avoid the brutal, destructive world that would be

Panem.