With the release of Mockingjay Part 1, the Hunger Games franchise continues to reach commercial success and remains wildly popular. This isn’t really surprising, our society loves books and films about dystopian futures (1984, The Matrix, Terminator etc.). We love to imagine how we would cope under oppressive governments, or in an outbreak of disease – as discussed in class everyone has their own zombi apocalypse plan. I think one of the things that pulls us to this kind of fiction is imagining ourselves in that situation – and that situation bringing out the best in ourselves. We imagine ourselves finding a cure, saving children or leading a rebellion to overthrow our oppressors. We imagine proving ourselves in the face of adversity.
So what happens when dystopia comes to life? On August 9th, 2014, unarmed Michael Brown, and 18 year old Black man was shot at point blank range by white police officer Darren Wilson after Wilson told him to stop jaywalking. Brown was kneeling on the street with his hands up in surrender when Wilson delivered a fatal shot to his head. All up Brown was shot 6 times. The Ferguson grand jury has just come to the decision that there will be no indictment of Darren Wilson – he will face no legal repercussions for his acts. In the aftermath of his death, Brown has been described as “no angel” by the media, while Darren Wilson has had great support – multiple Facebook support groups have been made for him with tens of thousands of likes, people have donated over $400, 000 to him (not that he needs it, he’s been on paid leave since he shot Brown and won’t even have to lawyer up now he’s escaped indictment). The resulting protests in Ferguson, where Brown lived, have been met with military style force and the national guard was called in today in anticipation of protests following the announcement of no indictment. If the events that have occurred in Ferguson were described in a novel, or portrayed in a film – we would, rightfully, be in full solidarity with Brown, be completely against the police and excitedly read through the events of the unending protests inspired by the bravery of the people of Ferguson. I feel like this would be especially true if the character in the book were white. In fact it would also be true if Michael Brown had been white. People will say ‘it’s not about race’ in reference to Ferguson, but I cannot imagine a situation where a white boy would even be shot for jaywalking in the first place, let alone have his killer walk free. That a white boy would not be shot for jaywalking really drives home the point of this all – Michael Brown was not shot because he broke the law, he was shot because he was Black. In the USA, a white police officer will shoot a Black man almost 2 times a week. If we turned Ferguson into the Hunger Games, white people are citizens of the Capitol, white police are the peacekeepers and Black people are the from the Districts. White people, unaware of our privilege, white police, abusing that privilege to violently assert dominance over Black people, and Black people, living in fear of being one of those 2 a week. The white population of America’s overwhelming support of Darren Wilson shows, most importantly the racism that continues to dominate North American society, as well as that we don’t actually like revolution, we want to turn our heads away from and ignore dystopian reality, we don’t care about justice or fighting when it is needed in real life. We just care about the idea of it.