Rue From "The Hunger Games" Has Some Really Important Opinions About The Baltimore Protests
29 April 2015, 11:58 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
16 year-old Amandla Stenberg has no time for racial ignorance.
It's difficult for teenagers to try and educate the older generation on how to respond to (or even admit to) systematic inequality; but that definitely isn't stopping Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg from trying.
After shooting back into the public eye this month with her excellent and articulate commentary on cultural appropriation in the music industry, Amandla has weighed in on the recent events in Baltimore, where protests have broken out after yet another police brutality incident that resulted in the death of Freddie Gray.
My prayers go out to all my brothers & sisters in Baltimore. This battle is hard but crucial. The revolutionary youth will change the world.
— Amandla Stenberg (@amandlastenberg) April 28, 2015
Amandla took to Twitter to express her empathy for the people protesting in Baltimore, both peacefully and less so. While most media outlets and anonymous keyboard warriors are focusing on examples of the more violent and vandalistic acts to justify the heavy-handedness of Baltimore police, Amandla and many others are trying to remind the non-oppressed masses exactly why this civil unrest is taking place.
Don't condemn our anger. Don't denounce our pain as savage. What's savage is the cruel inhumanity and brutality of the police. Condemn that.
— Amandla Stenberg (@amandlastenberg) April 28, 2015
Amandla is keeping the conversation going more actively on her Tumblr, by reblogging a mixture of information, encouragement, and a completely on-point comparison of how we react to the Baltimore protests vs how we reacted to the aftermath of the on-screen death of her character Rue in The Hunger Games.
Isn't it great when you can use your own work to make your point more clearly?
Amandla was recently touted by superstar Taylor Swift as one of her "Women Of Tomorrow" during her guest editor spot in Glamour UK. And with her current track record of intelligent discussion and inspiration for a young audience, it's not hard to see why.
A sneak peak into my guest edited issue of @GlamourUK. My Women of Tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/2mLsvdtdL9
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 23, 2015
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